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Sandman’s • 

Rainy Day 

Stories • 


Abbie Phillips Walker 


HARPER £? BROTHERS. PUBLISHERS 



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SANDMAN’S 
RAINY DAY STORIES 

V 


Books by 

ABBIE PHILLIPS WALKER 


SANDMAN’S STORIES OF DRUSILLA DOLL 
SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 
SANDMAN’S CHRISTMAS STORIES 
SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 
TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 
SANDMAN’S TALES 
THE SANDMAN’S HOUR 


Harper & Brothers Publishers 

Established 1817 


Ce^rvd man’s 
^ R.ainy D^y 
♦ Stories^ 



B^Abbie Phillips Wadker* *® 

IUust rated by Rhoda. C. Cha-se • • 
Harper G Brothers. Publishers 







Sandman’s Rainy Day Stories 


Copyright, 1920, by Harper & Brothers 
Printed in the United States of America 
Published September, 1920 

<?-U 


StP -2 is2(J i 

©CU576273 


This book is lovingly dedicated 
to the memory of 
my father 

THOMAS PHILLIPS 






































































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CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Princess Cantilla • • * 3 

The Tree of Swords 18 

The Silver Horseshoes 28 

The Blue Castle . 37 

Nardo and the Princess . . . . 50 

Old Three Heads 59 

The Enchanted Boat 73 

Nicko and the Ogre 83 

The Gingerbread Rock 91 

Prince Roul’s Bride 100 

Sunev 109 

ClLLA AND THE DWARF H7 

Greta and the Black Cat . . . i 123 

The Knight of the Bright Star 132 

The Dolphin’s Bride 138 

Princess Dido and the Prince of the Roses . . . 144 

Catville Gossip *51 

How the Elephant Got His Trunk 154 

Why Rabbits Have Short Tails 160 

The Hunter’s Friend, Johnnie Bear 166 

Plaid Trousers 170 

The Three Runaways 177 



















SANDMAN’S 
RAINY DAY STORIES 














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PRINCESS CANTILLA 

DRINCESS CANTILLA lived in a castle 
* like most princesses, but she was not a 
rich princess, for her father had lost all his 
lands and money by quarreling with other 
kings about the length and breadth of his 
kingdom and theirs. 

So poor little Cantilla had to work just 
like any common peasant girl and cook the 
meals, for herself and her father. 

The old castle where Cantilla and her father 
lived had fallen into decay, and only a few 
rooms at one end were now used, so that the 
bats and owls had taken possession of the 
towers and once gorgeous halls on the oppo- 
site side of the castle, where beautiful ladies 
and courtly gentlemen were once seen in gay 




4 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES' 

and festive pleasures. A kitchen and a bed- 
room apiece were all the rooms that Cantilla 
and her father, the old King, used, and the 
furniture was so old it hardly held together. 

One day Cantilla was cooking soup for din- 
ner, and as the steam rolled up from the kettle 
Cantilla thought she saw a face with a long 
beard looking at her. She drew her hand 
across her eyes to make her sight more clear, 
and the next time she looked she did see a 
face, and a form, too. 

A little man with a misshapen back and 
a long white beard, the ends of which he 
carried over one arm, stepped from the 
cover of the boiline pot and hopped to the 
floor. 

“Princess,” he said, bowing low before 
Cantilla, “I am an enchanted dwarf. I can 
give you back your once beautiful home and 
make your father a rich king again. 

* 1 1 can cause all the rooms of the old castle 
to become new and filled with beautiful hang- 
ings and furniture, as they were before your 
father became so poor.” 

Cantilla began to smile at the thought of 
all the luxury and comfort the dwa*rf pictured, 
and she lost sight of his ugly-looking body and 


PRINCESS CANTILLA 5 

face for a minute, but she was brought to her 
senses by what the dwarf next said. 

“All this will I give you, Princess Cantilla, 
if you will become my wife,” he said, taking 
a step closer to Cantilla. 

“Oh no, no! I cannot do that,” said Can- 
tilla, holding up both hands as if to ward off 
even the thought of such a thing. 

“Wait,” said the dwarf. “Do not be so 
hasty, my Princess. I will come again for 
your reply to-night at the fountain in the 
garden where the honeysuckle grows.” 

Before Cantilla could reply to this he swung 
his beard over his head and disappeared in a 
cloud of what looked like steam or smoke. 

Cantilla looked about her and pinched her- 
self to make sure she had not dreamed all she 
had just seen, and by and by she believed it 
was a dream — that she must have fallen asleep 
in her chair by the fire. 

That night while she was sleeping she was 
awakened by feeling some one touch her on 
the face. 

Cantilla had been awakened so many times by 
the little mice that overran the old castle that 
she only brushed her face with her hand with- 
out opening her eyes and went to sleep again. 


6 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

“ Cantilla, open your eyes! Open your eyes!” 
she heard some one whisper close to her ear, 
and again she felt the touch of something on 
her face. 

Cantilla opened her eyes and sat up in bed. 
The room was quite bright, and a beautiful 
lamp with a pink silk shade gave everything 
in the room a rose tint. 

Cantilla was sure she was dreaming, for it 
was not her old shabby room at all she was 
looking at. 

She looked down at the covering of her 
bed — that was pink silk, too; she felt of it 
and found it was filled with the softest down; 
she also noticed that she wore a beautiful night- 
robe of pink silk and lace. 

On the floor beside the bed on a soft, pink 
rug stood two little satin slippers, trimmed 
with swan’s-down. 

“I am dreaming,” said Cantilla, '‘but I 
will enjoy it while it lasts,” and she looked 
about her. 

The furniture was white and gold, and soft 
pink rugs covered the floor. Her bed had 
little gold Cupids on each post, and they held 
in their hands the ends of pink silk that 
formed a beautiful canopy ; little frills of lace 


PRINCESS CANTILLA 


7 


fell from the bottom of the silk, making it 
look very soft and pretty in the lamplight. 

On the table beside her bed, which held 
her lamp, Cantilla saw a big gold-and-glass 
bottle. She reached for it and took out the 
gold stopper, then she tipped the bottle and 
bathed her face and hands with the delicious 
perfume it held.. 

Cantilla put her little feet out of bed and 
slipped them into the slippers and walked 
over to the gold-and-white dressing-table at 
the other side of the room. 

Everything was so beautiful she just looked 
at first, then she picked up a gold brush and 
smoothed her hair. She took up each of the 
gold toilet articles and saw that on each was 
the letter “C.” 

'“They must belong to me,” said Cantilla. 
“But, of course, it is all a dream,” as she 
opened a drawer of a big gold-and-white chest. 

What she saw made Cantilla gasp with 
wonder, for the drawer was filled with beau- 
tiful clothes, and as she opened the others she 
found they all were filled with silk and lace- 
trimmed clothes. 

Cantilla forgot all about her dream and 
ran, just as though she were awake, to a closet 


8 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


door that was open. She swung it back and 
looked ; there hung before her astonished 
gaze pink silk dresses and blue silk dresses 
and white and dainty green and yellow silk 
dresses. 

Now, I did not tell you that Cantilla had 
black hair which hung in long curls about her 
pretty face and over her pretty white shoul- 
ders, and her eyes were as deep blue as the 
deepest blue of a violet, and when she put 
on one of the pink silk dresses and stepped in 
front of a long mirror she forgot all else for a 
moment. Then suddenly she heard her name 
called softly. “ Cantilla, Cantilla,” the voice 
said. 

Cantilla looked up, and on the top of the 
mirror stood a little fairy dressed in pink 
gauze. 

“Oh! you have a pretty pink dress, too,” 
said Cantilla, forgetting to be surprised at 
seeing a fairy in her room. 

“Yes, but it is the only dress I own,” said 
the little creature, with a smile, “while you 
have a closet full; but then mine never wear 
out, and yours will.” 

“You mean I will wake up in a minute, I 
suppose,” said Cantilla. “Yes, I know it is 


PRINCESS CANTILLA 


9 


a dream, but I am having a good time. I wish 
I could have a dream like this eVery night. 
I wouldn’t mind being poor through the 
day.” 

“Ah! but you are not dreaming at all, 
Princess Cantilla,” said the fairy, “and if you 
will follow me I will show you more of your 
beautiful home. Come along.” 

Cantilla did not answer, but walked after 
the fairy, who skimmed along before Cantilla 
like a little pink bird. 

The fairy touched a door with her wand 
and it flew open. Cantilla looked about her 
in wonder, for the hall, which had been hung 
with tatters of faded tapestry, now looked 
like the hall of a king. 

The tapestry hung whole and rich-looking 
upon the walls, which were of deep blue and 
gold. The old armor that had been broken 
and covered with dust and mold was erect as 
though its former wearer was inside it. 

The fairy touched the door of the room 
where the old King was sleeping, and again 
Cantilla looked in wonder, for her father slept 
beneath a canopy of red and gold upon a bed 
of gold, and all the furnishings of his room 
were such as a king would have. 




IO SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

Cantilla looked at her father. He was smil- 
ing in his sleep, and the care-worn look had 
gone from his face. 

The fairy beckoned to her and Cantilla, 
with one backward glance at her sleeping 
father, followed. 

Next the old dining-hall was opened for 
Cantilla to see. The once faded and torn dra- 
peries were whole, and bats and owls were gone 
from the corners of the room where they had 
often made their nests. 

The beautiful table of onyx and silver was 
covered with dishes of silver, and dainty lace 
napkins lay beside each place as though ready 
for the coming guests. But the fairy led her 
away, and next Cantilla saw the beautiful 
halls where the old King held his grand balls 
and kings and queens and princes and prin- 
cesses had danced. 

The lights burned in the gold-and-glass fix- 
tures fastened to the walls and made the place 
look like fairyland. 

The blue damask curtains with their edge 
of priceless lace hung from the windows, 
whole and shimmering with richness, and 
chairs of gold stood upright and bright against 
the walls, and the floor shone with polish. 


PRINCESS CANTILLA 


ii 


And sq through the whole castle the fairy 
led the wondering little Princess to look at 
her old ruined home, now beautiful and whole. 

Then the fairy took Cantilla to the gardens. 
The once dry fountains were playing in the 
moonlight, the nightingales could be heard 
among the roses, and the air was filled with 
rich perfume. 

When they reached the lower end of the 
garden Cantilla suddenly stopped and stood 
very still. She was beside a fountain, and 
honeysuckle grew over an arbor close beside it. 

Cantilla remembered the words of the dwarf 
she had seen in her dream, and his words, “I 
will come for your reply to-night at the foun- 
tain where the honeysuckle grows.” 

The fairy stood on a bush beside her. “ You 
remember now, do you not?” she asked. “You 
see it was not a dream this morning, and you 
are not dreaming now, my Princess, but I 
cannot help you. I have finished my work 
and must return to my Queen. Farewell!” 

Cantilla watched the fairy disappear with- 
out uttering a single word. She saw in her. 
mind’s eye only the ugly features of the 
dwarf and heard his words. 

In another minute she saw what looked 


12 


SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


like a cloud near the honeysuckle arbor, and 
in another minute the dwarf of the morning 
stood before her with the ends of his long 
white beard thrown over one arm. 

-“I have come, Princess Cantilla, for my 
answer,” said the dwarf. “Marry me and all 
you have seen shall be yours.” 

Cantilla threw out her hands as she had in 
the morning and started to reply, but the 
dwarf checked her. “Before you give your 
answer,” he said, “think of your old father 
and how contented and happy he looked sur- 
rounded by the comforts of his former days 
of prosperity.” 

Cantilla let her hands fall by her side, her 
head bent low, and she stood lost in thought. 
She saw again her old father in his bed of gold, 
and the face that looked so happy, then she 
raised her head without looking at the ugly 
creature before her and said: “I consent; I 
will become your wife; I cannot love you, 
but I will wed you if that will content you.” 

“Follow me, then,” said the dwarf, throw- 
ing his long beard over his head and letting 
it fall over Cantilla as he spoke. 

Cantilla saw only a fleecy cloud closing all 
about her, and the next thing she knew she 


PRINCESS CANTILLA 


13 


was on a little island in the middle of a deep 
blue ocean, with the dwarf standing beside her. 

The dwarf, with his beard still over one 
arm, held his hands to his mouth and gave 
a long, loud call, which seemed to descend to 
the depths of the ocean. 

Up from the water came an arm and hand 
holding a twisted shell, and then Cantilla 
saw a head appear and blow a long, loud blast 
from the shell. 

A splashing was heard, and out of the water 
came an old man in a chariot of mother-of- 
pearl. 

The chariot was drawn by two horses with 
feet and manes of gold, and in one hand the 
old man carried a long wand with three prongs 
at one end. 

The old man struck the water with the 
queer-looking wand, and from all over the 
surface of the water come the sea nymphs and 
all sorts of monsters and creatures that live 
at the bottom of the ocean. 

But when the mermaids appeared the old 
man sent them back quickly and drove his 
chariot toward Cantilla and the dwarf. 

Cantilla by this time was beyond being 
frightened or surprised, and she stood beside 


i 4 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

the dwarf waiting for the next thing to 
happen. 

“My Lord Neptune/’ said the dwarf, bow- , 
ing low as the old man drove close to the 
island on which Cantilla and the dwarf stood, 
“I have come with my Princess for you to 
perform the ceremony. She has consented to 
become my wife.” 

“What!” cried the old man, in an angry 
voice, “do you mean you have found a 
Princess who will consent to have such a 
husband as you are — ugly and misshapen 
wretch?” 

“Answer him, my Princess,” said the dwarf. 
“Tell my Lord Neptune you consent to marry 
me.” 

“ I do consent to marry the dwarf,” Cantilla 
managed to say, and again the old man struck 
the water, this time in anger, and the water 
spouted about them like huge fountains throw- 
ing up rivers. 

Cantilla felt the dwarf take her hand, and 
he said, “Fear not, my Princess; it will soofi 
be over.” 

In a few minutes the water was calm again, 
and the old man in the chariot stood a little 
way off, surrounded by the nymphs and other 


PRINCESS CANTILLA 


i5 


creatures, holding the three-pronged wand high 
over his head. 

“I release you; you are wed; be gone from 
my sight,” said the old man, and as the trum- 
pet-bearer sounded his loud call, the old man 
and his chariot passed into the deep water, 
followed by all his nymphs and the others. 

Cantilla looked toward the dwarf, wonder- 
ing if ever any one had such a strange wedding, 
but to her surprise he was gone and by her 
side stood a handsome man, who said: “My 
Princess, behold in me your husband. I am 
free from the spell of the old man of the sea, 
who wanted me to become a sea monster and 
live under the ocean. 

“I was changed into the shape of the ugly 
dwarf because I would not marry a mermaid 
who happened to fall in love with me one day 
while I was bathing, and she called upon a 
sea witch to change me into a sea monster, 
but I escaped before I took on the sea shape, 
but not before I was changed into the ugly 
dwarf you saw this morning. 

“A kind fairy interceded with her Queen to 
save me, and she went to the old man, who 
is Neptune, the God of the Waters. He told 
the Queen if I could find a princess who would 


16 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

consent to marry me he would release me 
from the spell the sea witch had cast over me. 

“You know how that was accomplished, 
my Princess, and if you think you can accept 
me in place of the dwarf for your husband we 
will return to the castle, where your father is 
still sleeping, I expect, for the Fairy Queen said 
she would watch until sunrise for our return. ” 

Cantilla, no longer looking sad, but smiling 
and happy, put her hand in her husband’s and 
told him she was the happiest girl in the world. 

“ And I am the happiest man in the world,” 
said her husband, ‘ ‘for I not only am freed from 
the spell of the sea witch, but I have won the 
one woman in the world I could ever love for 
my wife.” 

Three times he clapped his hands together, 
and the little fairy in the pink gauze dress 
appeared. 

‘ ‘ The Queen sends her love to you and this 
message, ‘Bless you, my children,’ and now I 
will take you home to the castle.” 

She touched the Princess and her husband 
on the cheek with her wand, and Cantilla 
found herself back in the castle garden by the 
fountain and honeysuckle arbor, with her 
handsome husband standing by her side. 


PRINCESS CANTILLA 


17 


"Come, my dear, we must go in to break- 
fast,’" said her husband; “your father will be 
waiting for us.” 

“How will we explain about our wedding 
and the changed appearance of the castle?” 
asked Cantilla. 

“Oh! the Fairy Queen has arranged all 
that,” said Cantilla’s husband. “Your father 
will not remember he ever lost his fortune ; he 
will ask no questions.” 

Cantilla and her husband went hand in 
hand into the castle to their breakfast, and 
from that day Cantilla never knew another 
sorrow or unhappy moment. 



THE TREE OF SWORDS 

O N CE there lived a king who had a daugh- 
ter that had been changed by a wicked 
witch into a brindle cow. 

The witch had wanted the King to invite 
her to the feast when the Princess was born, 
and because he invited her only into the ser- 
vants’ hall and not to the feast of the royal 
family the old witch had thrown a spell over 
the baby, and when she grew to womanhood 
she suddenly one day changed into the brindle 
cow. Great was the surprise of the King and 
Queen when they went to the room of the 
Princess one morning and found in her dainty 
lace bed a cow in place of their pretty daughter. 

They sent for the old witch at once, for they 
knew that some magic spell must have caused 


THE TREE OF SWORDS 


19 


this terrible change, but the old witch sent 
back word that the only thing that would 
change the Princess back to her own shape was 
a pear from the tree which grew by the moun- 
tain of ice. 

Now this mountain of ice all the people 
knew was controlled by a three-headed troll, 
and the tree which grew near by was the 
chimney to his home under the mountain. 

There was nothing to do but to offer money 
to the one who would get the pear which 
would restore the little Princess to her own 
form. 

There was another thing that made it very 
dangerous to try to get the pear, and this 
was that no sooner did one attempt to touch 
the tree than all its branches changed to sharp 
swords. 

To reach the tree the mountain must be 
climbed, and this being of ice, the ones who 
tried were in danger of slipping and being 
killed as they fell, sliding down the mountain 
and striking on the tree, which would be filled 
with swords as soon as they struck it. 

After a while all those who tried gave it up 
as too dangerous, and the King then sent out 
word that to the one who would bring the 


20 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

pear, be he rich or poor, of high or low degree, 
he would give to him the Princess for a wife, 
as well as a barrel of gold. 

But no one would risk his life for that offer, 
for they thought perhaps the Princess would 
not regain her shape even after eating the 
pear, and who would wish to marry a cow, 
even if she were royal? 

But one day a poor youth came to the 
palace and told the King and Queen that he 
would try to get a pear if they would give him 
the brindle cow before he ventured up the 
mountain of ice. “For if I fail,” he said, “I 
wish to leave my poor mother something, and 
a cow is always useful.” 

The King offered money, but the youth 
would have nothing but the brindle cow, so 
they led away the cow to the peasant's bam, 
while the King and Queen watched her go 
with sad hearts. 

On her back was a velvet blanket trimmed 
with gold, and the Queen tried to make the 
peasant take a soft bed for her to sleep on, but 
this he would not do. “No, she is a cow, and 
must sleep in the bam like other cows,” he 
said. 

The King and Queen had all this time been 


THE TREE OP SWORDS 21 

feeding the cow on dainty fruit and all sorts 
of good things, and the youth had heard that 
the pear she was to eat to save her would be 
bitter and bad to taste, and he wanted to get 
her used to eating anything that was given her. 

The peasant youth began his climb up the 
mountain of ice, but each day for a month he 
only went one step ahead, for while he some- 
times went far up, each time he would slip 
back. 

And all this time the poor little cow was 
growing thinner and thinner, for she would 
not eat the food that was put before her. 

One day when the peasant youth was about 
discouraged and thought he would have to 
give up trying for the pear, he felt the ice under 
him suddenly grow soft and his feet seemed to 
stick and not slip any more. 

To his surprise, when he looked at his feet 
he saw a little fairy standing on each foot and 
touching them with her wand. 

Up he went swiftly now, and soon was at a 
place on the mountain where he could touch 
the magic tree, and there the little fairies told 
him they were powerless to help him further. 

“We can only tell you that if you can get 
from the three-headed troll the belt he wears 
3 


22 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

you can get the pear, but we fairies cannot 
throw a spell over trolls,” they told him. 

When the fairies disappeared the peasant 
felt more discouraged than before, for there 
he was in danger of slipping, and before him 
was the dreadful tree. 

But while he stood thinking the tree opened 
and out came the troll, leaving the tree wide 
open behind him. 

He did not look up or down, to right or left, 
but walked down the mountain, and the youth, 
sitting flat upon the ice, slid into the open tree. 

Down, down he went! And then suddenly 
he found himself in a big room, in one corner 
of which was a huge bed, in another a big stove, 
in another a big chair and table, and in the 
fourth corner stood a large sword so tall that 
the peasant could easily hide behind it. 

And lucky it was for him that it was big, 
for at that moment in came the three-headed 
troll and rolled all six of his eyes about the 
room. 

“He, hi, ho, him! I smell the flesh of a 
mortal son,” he said. “You cannot escape me, 
so come out from wherever you are hiding!” 
The frightened youth was trembling so that 
the sword tipped over, and there he stood be- 


THE TREE OF SWORDS 


23 


fore the three-headed troll, who j limped to 
catch him. 

But though he had three heads, he had only 
two feet, and, tripping over the sword, he 
fell sprawling on the floor. 

Now his three heads were so heavy that, 
once he was down, it was hard work to get up, 
and while he struggled his belt became un- 
fastened and lay under him on the floor. 

The peasant saw this and, knowing he was 
in danger anyway, thought he would risk a 
little more. 

So he ran over to the troll and with both 
hands tugged at the belt, and as the troll 
rolled over out from under him it came. 

Quickly as he could he put the belt about 
his waist, and, to his surprise, he felt so strong 
that the size of the sword on the floor seemed 
no longer to frighten him. 

He picked it up and found that it was as 
light as a tin one, and then the troll, rolling 
over again, saw his belt around the peasant’s 
waist and his sword in his hand, and he cried 
out, “ My power is gone!” as he tried to crawl 
away. 

“Tell me how to get a pear from the tree 
and I will spare your life,” said the peasant. 


24 


SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


The troll managed to get upon his feet, but 
he was no longer the powerful creature he had 
been a few moments before. 

“ Follow me,” he said, as he led the peasant 
out of the door of the tree, which was still open. 

The tree was filled with swords, all, shiny 
and sharp-looking, as the sun fell upon them, 
for as soon as the peasant had slid in the door 
the swords had appeared and had warned the 
troll before he entered that some mortal was 
near by. 

“If you will promise to do as I ask you after 
you have the pear, I will tell you the secret 
of getting it,” said the troll. “It will not harm 
any one to grant my last wish.” 

So the youth promised and the troll said: 
“You must strike the swords on the tree with 
the sword you hold until the sparks fly. Then 
the pears which you see hanging from the 
swords will fall to the ground, but the tree 
will bum up. 

“And then there will be nothing for me. 
My magic power will be gone forever. So I 
ask that you will then strike me with the 
sword on my middle head, and that will change 
me into a shape which will never harm any 
one again.” 


THE TREE OF SWORDS 


25 


This the youth said he would do and began 
to strike the swords on the tree, making the 
sparks fly and the pears drop, and then all at 
once the tree began to burn. 

Keeping the sword still in his grasp, the 
youth looked for the largest of the green pears 
and picked it up, putting it in his pocket. 

“Don’t forget your promise,” said the troll 
as the youth started to go away. “You need 
not be afraid,” he said as the youth drew back. 
“The blow will not hurt me.” 

So the youth lifted the sword and brought 
it down on the troll’s middle dead with such 
force that the sword fell from his hands and 
struck the mountain of ice with such a bang 
that the ice began to crack. 

At first the youth did not see what had 
happened, the noise had startled him so, but 
the next minute he saw that in place of the 
troll stood a beautiful tree filled with pears, 
and the mountain was no longer ice, but 
covered with soft, green moss. 

He did not stop, but down the mountain he 
ran and to his home, where the brindle cow 
stood in the barn, so hungry she opened her 
mouth at once and ate the pear, thinking it 
would be sweet and juicy, but it was far from 


26 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


that. It was so bitter and bad that had she 
not been so hungry she could not have eaten 
it, but it was swallowed before she knew it, 
and there in the stall of the peasant’s barn 
stood the pretty Princess looking about her in 
astonishment. 

“How did I come in this horrid place, and 
what a dirty-looking man you are!’’ she said. 
“Take me home at once! My father is the 
King, and he will punish you if you do not 
obey me!’*’ 

It did not take the peasant long to take her 
home, and when the Queen and the King saw 
their daughter in her own form again they fell 
on their knees before the peasant youth and 
thanked him. 

But the Princess did not understand what 
it all meant, and said: “Why do you kneel to 
him? He should kneel to you! Are you not 
King and Queen of this land, and this man 
a poor peasant?” 

Before the King could explain to the Prin- 
cess the youth said: “I have brought you 
your daughter, but you must keep her. I 
could never marry a maid who thought her- 
self above me. Give me gold and let me go 
back to my home!” 


THE TREE OF SWORDS 


27 


He was wise enough to see that a poor peas- 
ant and a princess could not be happy together 
and a peasant girl was a more fitting bride for 
him. 

The Princess was very sorry for all she had 
said when she found out the peasant had saved 
her, and when he was married she sent to his 
wife a chest of linen and silver which made 
her the envy of all the other peasants for 
miles around. 

The troll was never heard of again, and only 
the peasant youth knows that the pear-tree 
on the side of the mountain which bears such 
juicy fruit was once the three-headed troll 
who lived under the tree of swords. 



THE SILVER HORSESHOES 

O NCE upon a time there lived a king who 
wanted a son-in-law who would be a 
good soldier as well as a good husband, so he 
put his daughter, the Princess, who, of course, 
was very beautiful, in a tower on top of a high 
mountain. Then he sent out word all over 
his kingdom and to all the other kingdoms 
that to the youth who could get to the top 
of the tower he would give the Princess for a 
wife. 

But when the youths came from far and 
near they found the mountain was slippery as 
glass, and their horses slipped back faster than 
they could climb. 

In a kingdom far from where the King lived 
was a poor prince whose father had lost all his 


THE SILVER HORSESHOES 


29 


lands and money in wars, so that when he 
died he left the Prince nothing but the castle 
and a black horse. 

One day the Prince was feeding his horse 
and thinking of the Princess on top of the 
high mountain in the tower, and he spoke his 
thought out loud. 

“If only I had some clothes fit to be seen,” 
he said, “I would try to reach the Princess in 
the tower, and this poverty would be at an 
end. And you, my beauty, would have oats 
in plenty then,” patting the horse on the 
neck. 

“Why don’t you try, master? ” said the horse. 

The Prince was surprised to hear the horse 
speak, but still he had heard of such things 
happening, and he answered, saying: “I 
have no clothes; besides, many others have 
tried, and no horse is able to climb the moun- 
tain.” 

“Master, go to the witch that lives in a 
cave in the middle of the woods at midnight 
and get my shoes,” said the horse. And then 
he fell to eating his scanty dinner and said no 
more. 

The Prince thought there was nothing to 
lose by doing as the horse told him, so that 


3 o SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

night he went to the woods to find the witch. 
The woods he found easily, but to find the 
cave was a different matter. First he met a 
fox, and he asked the way to the cave of the 
witch. 

“Oh, master,’ ’ said the fox, “take my ad- 
vice and go home; no good will come to you 
if you find it.” 

But the Prince would not give up the quest, 
so he asked a wolf that he met next where the 
cave was located in the woods. 

The wolf ran away, saying: “You better go 
home. That cave will bring only harm to any 
one who finds it.” 

The Prince was not to be frightened and on 
he went, and an owl was the next one he saw. 
“Where is the cave the old witch lives in?” 
he asked. 

“Hoot! hoot!” said the owl, flapping his 
wings. “Be off, man, while there is time. 
Don’t go near that cave if you value your 
life,” and off flew the owl, leaving the Prince 
no wiser than before. 

After going deep into the woods — in fact, 
he was at the very center and did not know it 
— the Prince stood still and listened. 

A sound reached his ear which seemed like 


THE SILVER HORSESHOES 


31 


the clatter of horses’ hoofs, and the Prince 
went in the direction from which the sound 
came. 

All at once he found himself in front of the 
cave for which he had searched so long, and, 
looking in, he saw the old witch prancing about 
in the craziest manner. 

She would climb the side of her cave with 
as much ease as she could walk across the 
floor, and then, giving a spring, she would walk 
on the top of the cave, her head hanging down 
toward the floor. 

While the Prince was looking and wonder- 
ing at this strange performance he noticed 
something shining on her feet, and when he 
looked closer, to his surprise he saw that the 
witch had on her feet silver horseshoes. Then 
he knew what his black horse had said was 
worth listening to — he was to get the shoes 
the old witch was wearing. 

But then he thought: "She has on only- 
two; I must have four. I wonder where are 
the other two.” 

Just then a black cat came dancing into the 
cave, and on her hind feet the Prince saw the 
other two shoes he wanted. Such dancing and 
climbing the Prince had never seen as was 


32 


SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


done by the old witch and her black cat. The 
silver shoes seemed to take them anywhere 
and they could do anything while they wore 
them. 

After a while the witch and the black cat 
grew weary and took off the shoes, and the 
Prince saw them lift up a stone in the middle 
of the cave and drop the four silver horseshoes 
into a hole and then drop the stone again. 

After the witch and the black cat were fast 
asleep in one corner of the cave the Prince 
crept in softly and lifted the stone. At the 
bottom of a deep hole he saw the horseshoes, 
and he was wondering how he could get them 
when he felt a push from behind and down he 
went into the hole, landing at the bottom 
where the shoes were. 

The old witch had awakened and had pushed 
him in, and the Prince could hear her and the 
cat jumping about and laughing with glee 
that they had trapped him. 

When the Prince found himself in the hole 
under the cave where the old witch lived he 
thought his end had come. It was as dark as 
a dungeon. The only thing he could see was 
the glitter of the silver horseshoes. 

While he stood looking at them and think- 


THE SILVER HORSESHOES 


33 


ing how the old witch and her cat jumped 
about, and wondering what she would do 
with him, he suddenly was struck with an 
idea. 

He would put on the shoes, one on each foot, 
and take the other two in his hands. 

No sooner did he think it than he did it, 
and, giving a spring, up he went, the stone 
flying off the top of the hole as he touched it 
with his hands holding the silver horseshoes. 

Into the cave he jumped, and the old witch 
and her black cat sprang at him, but he had 
only to run, and, without touching the ground, 
away he flew through the forest, the old witch 
and her cat after him. 

Sometimes they would almost catch him, 
for the witch had jumped on her broomstick 
and the cat sat on behind her, and they flew 
over trees and bushes as well as the Prince. 

The Prince knew he was lost if they caught 
him, and finally decided to turn around and 
run toward them, thinking he might be able 
to knock the witch off her broomstick and, so 
stop their flight. 

No sooner did he turn than the shirking 
silver shoes cast a ray of light on the old 
witch and her cat and like magic they tumbled 


34 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

off the broomstick, and away went the stick 
higher and higher in the air until it disap- 
peared; and on the ground where the cat 
and the old witch fell the Prince saw two 
stones, one big and the other smaller and 
almost black, so he knew he was rid of his 
enemies and could get out of the forest safely 
with the silver horseshoes. 

The black horse danced with delight when 
he saw the shoes, and stood still until they 
were fastened on his feet; then he pranced 
about and shook his head in a very knowing 
manner, though he did not speak again, and 
the Prince mounted him and rode away, for- 
getting all about his shabby coat. 

The black horse trotted along like any other 
horse until they came to the mountain on top 
of which the Princess lived in the tower; then 
the Prir\ce felt himself gliding up the moun- 
tain, past all the other youths who were vainly 
trying to climb to the top. 

Up and up they went until the Prince found 
hin\self by the tower. When he looked at the 
height he knew his troubles were not at an 
end. He looked around for some way to scale 
the wall, but it was as smooth as glass. While 
he stood looking at the top he saw something 


THE SILVER HORSESHOES 


35 


white slowly coming down the wall from a 
little window. 

Down it came until the Prince could see 
that it was a piece of white thread, and on 
the end of it was a little golden curl. 

The Prince untied it and kissed it, then, look- 
ing up at the window, he kissed his hand, for 
he knew that somewhere in the tower the Prin- 
cess had been looking for the Prince who was 
to come for her, and had seen him. 

He was more anxious than ever to reach the 
Princess, but how could he climb those slippery 
walls? 

How? And then he thought of the silver 
shoes that the witch had walked on the top of 
the cave with, and he took them off his horse 
and tied one on each foot and took one in 
each hand. 

Placing his hands on the wall of the tower, 
he walked up as easily as if he were walking 
on the ground, and in a few minutes was at 
the little window above. 

The Princess smiled when she saw him, and 
then he saw that the window which looked so 
small to him from the ground was really a 
door. 

He stepped in and knelt at the feet of the 


36 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

blushing Princess, who said, “I shall be glad 
to leave here, but how can I get to the 
ground?” 

“In my arms,” answered the bold Prince, 
and, picking her up, he stepped out on the 
smooth wall again, easily reaching the ground 
with the Princess. 

He placed her in front of him on his horse 
and rode down the mountain, at the bottom 
of which a crowd was waiting for him, and the 
King also, for it had been noised abroad that 
a youth had been seen to climb the mountain 
and the people wanted to see him. 

“Well done, my son,” said the King, riding 
up to greet them. “You will make a good 
soldier, for you have shown that you can over- 
come obstacles to gain that which you desire. 
Come home; the wedding feast is prepared.” 
So the Prince gained a princess for a wife, a 
father-in-law who admired his courage, and 
was happy ever after. 



THE BLUE CASTLE 
NCE upon a time in a far-off country 



there lived a witch on top of a high 
mountain, and every year she came down into 
the country about and appeared at the palace 
of the King and asked for a bag of gold. 

One night when the King and his Queen 
were making merry and having a big feast in 
honor of the birth of their little daughter, the 
Princess Lily, the old witch came to the palace 
and asked for her bag of gold. 

“Tell her to begone,” said the King to his 
servant. “I have used all the gold in the vaults 
for the feast ; she will have to come next year.” 

Now the old witch was very angry when she 
heard this message, and she hid in the grounds 
of the palace until all were asleep that night, 


4 



38 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

and then she entered the palace and carried 
off the baby Princess. 

The Queen and the King were beside them- 
selves with grief when they discovered their 
loss, and they offered big rewards for the 
return of their daughter, but she could not be 
found. 

“Find the old witch who came here the 
night of the feast,” said one of the King’s 
wise men, “and you will find the Princess.” 

They hunted far and near, but the witch 
could not be found, for when any one attempt- 
ed to climb the mountain where the old witch 
lived the insects would become as thick as 
mist and clouds and they could not see where 
to go. 

One after another gave up the attempt, and 
so after a while the King and Queen mourned 
their daughter as dead and the old witch never 
came to the palace again. 

The Queen and King never had any more 
children, and every day they grieved because 
there would be no one to reign after they were 
gone. 

One day one of the King’s wise men said to 
him: “In a cave in the forest lives an ogre 
who has a wonderful horse; it is kept in a 


THE BLUE CASTLE 


39 


stable made of marble, and its stall is of gold, 
and it is fed on corn grown in a field of pearls. 

“ If we could get this horse we might be able 
to climb the mountain where the old witch 
lives, and perhaps the Princess is still alive.’ ’ 

“But how can we get this horse?” asked 
the King. 

“Ah! that is the hard part,” answered the 
wise man. “The enchanted creature can only 
be caught and mounted by one who can feed 
him with the magic corn, and it is said that 
any one who tries to gather the corn from the 
field of pearls finds himself sinking, and has 
to run for his life, so that only the ogre, who 
knows the magic words that keep the pearls 
from drawing him down, can gather the corn.” 

When the King heard this he sent for all the 
princes in the land to come to his palace, and 
when they came he told them he would give 
to the one who could catch and mount the 
ogre’s enchanted horse his kingdom if he could 
find the lost Princess Lily, and she should 
become his wife. 

But all the princes were rich enough, and 
did not care to take such a risk, especially as 
they had never seen the Princess Lily. 

Then the King sent out word to all the 


40 


SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


poor young men in his kingdom to come to 
him, and he made them the same offer, but 
one by one they turned away, and at last 
there was only a poor peasant youth left. 

“I will try, Your Majesty,” he said, “but 
I will not marry the Princess unless I can love 
her, and if she does not wish to marry me I 
will not hold you to that part of the bargain, 
either, but I will take the kingdom if I bring 
back your child.” 

So that night the peasant boy went to a 
fairy that lived in the woods and asked her 
to help him. 

“You can only enter the field of magic 
corn by wearing the magic shoes belonging to 
the ogre, and he sleeps with them under his 
bed. They are tied to the big toe of his right 
foot by a silken thread, and no one can cut 
it or break it without awakening the ogre. 

“I will give you a feather, and if you are 
fortunate enough to enter his chamber without 
being caught, for he is guarded well by a dog 
with two heads, use this feather to tickle his 
left foot and you can cut the silken thread 
without the ogre knowing it. This is all I can 
do to Kelp you. The two-headed dog is not 
in my power to control.” 


THE BLUE CASTLE 


41 


So the peasant took the magic feather and 
that night he went to the ogre's castle in the 
woods and waited until he heard his snore, 
and then he took from his pocket two big 
bones. 

He opened the door to the castle, for the 
ogre was afraid of no one and did not lock 
his door at night. 

The two-headed dog growled and sprang 
toward the peasant, but he quickly thrust the 
bones in the mouth of each and that quieted 
them. 

The two heads began to eat, and while they 
were eating the peasant crept softly into the 
room of the sleeping ogre and tickled his left 
foot, which was sticking out from under the 
bedclothes. 

The old ogre began to laugh, and he laughed 
so hard and loudly that no other sound could 
be heard; and the peasant had time to break 
the slender thread which was tied to the magic 
shoes with one hand while he kept tickling 
the ogre’s left foot with the feather held in 
the other hand. 

When he had the shoes under his arm he 
crept softly away from the bed, leaving the 
ogre still laughing. 


42 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

The two-headed dog was still eating the 
bones, and the peasant went out and sat on 
the steps of the castle to put on the magic 
shoe3. 

He had just drawn the shoes on when the 
two-headed dog finished the bones and set up 
a bark that the peasant thought at first was 
thunder. 

He ran to the field of pearls where grew the 
magic corn, and was just pulling the ears when 
the ogre came dashing out of his castle, fol- 
lowed by the two-headed dog, with both 
mouths wide open and looking as though he 
would devour him. 

Out of the field ran the peasant, but not 
before the ogre had entered, and down went 
the ogre out of sight, the pearls closing over 
his head, for, of course, he forgot all about 
his shoes when he heard the two-headed dog 
bark, and anyway he thought they were tied 
to the big toe of his right foot. 

But though he was rid of the ogre he was 
not of the two-headed dog, which ran after him, 
showing his two sets of big teeth and barking 
all the while. But the peasant was far ahead 
of the dog, so he reached the stable and fed 
the magic com to the enchanted horse, who 


THE BLUE CASTLE 


43 


neighed in the most friendly manner and let 
the peasant mount him. 

He wore a bridle of gold and silver trimmed 
with rubies, and he was pure white, with a 
saddle of purple velvet, with gold and silver 
trimmings. 

He was a horse fit for a king to ride, and 
the poor peasant looked strangely out of place 
on his back. 

Just as the peasant rode into the yard of 
the castle the two-headed dog dashed at the 
hind feet of the enchanted horse to bite him, 
but the horse kicked at him and over he rolled. 

The peasant looked back to see what had 
happened to the dog, but he was nowhere to 
be seen ; in the place where he had lain was a 
big black-looking rock with a ragged-looking 
top like a set of huge teeth. 

The peasant was rid of both his pursuers 
now, and he rode off toward the mountain 
where the King had told him the witch lived. 

Up the mountain dashed the enchanted 
white horse, as though he had wings instead 
of feet, and in a few minutes he had carried the 
peasant to the top. 

The, peasant looked about him, expecting 
to see a cave, but to his surprise he saw only 


44 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

a grove of trees with something glistening 
through their leaves which looked like a house. 

When he rode nearer to the grove he saw a 
deep -blue castle of glass without doors or 
windows, and inside he could see a girl spin- 
ning. 

She looked up as the shadow of the horse 
and rider fell on the glass castle, and her eyes 
grew big with surprise, but before the peasant 
could jump from his horse an old woman came 
up through the floor of the house and tapped 
the girl on the head with her cane, and she 
turned into a mouse. 

The peasant was too astonished to move 
for a minute, but the laugh of the old woman 
brought him to his senses and he knew she 
must be the witch. 

“ Ha, ha ! you caught the horse, but you can- 
not bring back the Princess until I will it!” 
she screamed, and then disappeared through 
the floor. 

The peasant walked around the blue castle, 
but no door or window could he find, or an 
opening of any kind. 

He was leading the horse by his gold bridle 
when suddenly it lifted one of its front feet 
and struck the blue castle. 


THE BLUE CASTLE 


45 


Crash ! went the blue glass, and the peasant 
saw an opening large enough for him to enter. 

He was about to do so, leaving the enchanted 
horse outside, when he heard another crash — 
the enchanted horse was following him in; it 
had broken a place large enough for both of 
them to enter. 

The mouse was crouching in one comer of 
the room and the peasant picked it up care- 
fully and put it in his pocket. 

The horse went to the spot where the old 
witch had disappeared, and tapped on the 
glass floor three times with one of his front 
feet, and up from the floor came the old witch. 
But this time she was not laughing; she looked 
frightened, and trembled so she had to lean 
on her cane to keep from falling. 

The enchanted horse took her by the dress 
and shook her three times, and out from her 
pocket fell a black bean with a white spot on it. 

As it dropped the old witch screamed and 
fell on the floor, and the horse picked up the 
bean and swallowed it. 

The peasant all this time was standing 
watching all the strange happenings, not dar- 
ing to move for fear of breaking the spell, and 
wondering what would happen next. 


4 6 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

As the horse swallowed the bean he seemed 
to shrink away from sight and a blue mist 
filled the room. When it cleared the peasant 
beheld a handsome young man where the 
horse had stood, and where the witch had been 
was a deep hole. 

“Did she fall into it?” asked the peasant, 
not knowing what else to say. 

“No; in that hole we w'ill find the magic 
charm that will restore the Princess to her 
own form,” said the young man. “The witch 
disappeared in the blue mist.” 

“Let us hurry and find the magic charm,” 
he said, dropping into the hole, and the peas- 
ant followed him. 

There was a ladder down which they 
climbed, and down they went until it seemed 
they would never reach the bottom. 

But at last their feet touched something 
firm and soft and they stood in a beautiful 
room on a carpet of blue velvet. 

The room was hung with velvet the color 
of sapphire, and the chairs were of burnished 
gold with velvet seats. 

A gold fountain played in the middle of the 
room and the water fell into a basin of sapphire. 

“This is the magic fountain,” said the 


THE BLUE CASTLE 


47 


youth. “You must throw the little mouse 
into it if you wish to bring back the Princess.” 

The peasant took from his pocket the trem- 
bling little mouse. “ It is frightened/’ he said. 
“I hate to throw it into that deep water.” 

Without replying the youth grabbed the 
mouse from the peasant and threw it with 
great force into the fountain and it disappeared 
from sight. 

“Oh, you have killed it!” said the peasant, 
looking into the deep-blue water with fright- 
ened eyes. 

Then he saw a head rise slowly from the 
bottom of the blue basin; then it came above 
the water; and then a beautiful girl stepped 
from the fountain, her golden hair all wet and 
glistening. 

A soft warm breeze came through the win- 
dows and soon her hair and clothes were dry, 
and the peasant thought he had never seen 
any one so beautiful as the Princess. 

“I am the Prince who was changed into 
the horse for the ogre,” said the youth, ad- 
dressing the Princess. “I was stolen at the 
same time you were and the ogre who was 
the husband of the witch took me and the 
witch took you, but this youth has rescued 


48 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

us, for it was here that the magic bean was 
kept that restored me to my own form, and 
if it had not been for a fairy who came to me 
one night and told me the secret I never 
should have regained my own form.” 

All the time the Prince was speaking the 
peasant saw the Princess looking at him with 
loving glance, and he knew the Princess was 
not for him, and besides that he knew he never 
would be happy in a palace. 

They began to look about and found they 
were in a beautiful palace that the old witch 
had lived in, but, now that she was gone for 
good, the peasant said he would take it as 
his reward and let the Prince and the Princess 
return to her father. 

In the stables they found beautiful white 
horses, and on one of them the Prince and 
Princess rode away after making the peasant 
promise to come to their wedding and to 
dance with the bride. “For we will never for- 
get you,” said the Princess, “and we must 
always be friends.” 

The father and mother of the Princess 
listened to the story the Prince told, and then 
the Queen said: “I can tell whether this is 
my lost child or not. Let me see your left 


THE BLUE CASTLE 


49 


shoulder ; she bears her name on that shoulder 
if she be our child.” 

The Princess bared her shoulder and there 
the Queen saw a tiny lily which proved she 
was her child. 

The King gave a great feast in honor of his 
daughter’s return, and the Prince and Princess 
were married; and the peasant danced at the 
wedding as he promised. 



NARDO AND THE PRINCESS 
NCE there lived a king who had two sons, 



and, though they were twins, they were 
as different as if they had been strangers. 

Nardo was kind and good, while his brother 
Stephen was greedy and selfish, never doing 
any one kindness. 

One day there came to the King’s gates an 
old beggar man who asked for a night’s lodg- 
ing and food. 

The brothers were standing near and 
Stephen told the servants to close the gates, 
that a palace was no place for beggars. 

“Stop,” said Nardo to the servant; “a 
palace is just the place for beggars. Brother, 
we have a plenty and to spare; let the poor 
man enter.” 


NARDO AND THE PRINCESS 51 

The beggar thanked Nardo and said: “ You 
shall never regret your kindness. Wear this 
ring, and whenever you wish for something 
money cannot buy you shall have your wish.” 

Nardo put the ring in his pocket and forgot 
all about it until he fell in love with a beautiful 
princess, and, like all lovers, he was afraid she 
did not love him. 

Then he remembered the old beggar man 
and the ring, and put it on and wished for the 
love of the beautiful Princess. 

It happened that Stephen also loved the 
Princess, but he knew she did not love him, 
and, seeing the ring the old beggar had given 
Nardo on his hand one day, he remembered 
what the beggar had said when he gave his 
brother the ring. 

“I must have the ring,” said Stephen. 
“Then I will have the love of the Princess; 
besides that, her father, the King, is old, and 
when he dies I shall be king in his place.” 

But it was no easy matter to possess the 
ring, for Nardo was as big and strong as 
Stephen. There was no way to get the ring 
from off his ‘finger unless he took it by force 
or could get some witch to weave a spell over 
him. 


52 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

And all this time the beautiful Princess was 
in love with Nardo. Had he only known it, he 
needed no magic ring to win her love for him. 

One night after trying in vain to get the 
ring Stephen went to an old witch who lived 
in a cave by the sea and asked her to get 
the ring for him, promising to make her rich if 
she would get it. 

The witch was greedy for gold, so one night 
while Nardo slept she crept into the palace, 
aided by the wicked Stephen, and cast a spell 
over Nardo, which made him forget the ring 
and also his love for the beautiful Princess. 

Stephen, with the ring on his finger, felt that 
all was easy now, and he promptly forgot all 
about the old witch and the gold he promised 
her. 

The beautiful Princess looked with sad eyes 
upon the now cold and indifferent Nardo, and, 
while she did not love Stephen, she felt each 
day that she was being drawn to him, though 
she knew well enough she did not love any one 
but Nardo. 

The old witch, however, helped the Prin- 
cess out of part of her troubles, for when she 
found that Stephen did not intend to give her 
the gold, she waited for him one day in the 


NARDO AND THE PRINCESS 


53 


palace grounds, hidden behind a clump of 
bushes, and when he came out for a walk she 
pointed her lean fingers at him and placed him 
under a spell which made him follow her to her 
cave by the sea. 

Here she chained him to a rock and put a 
dragon to watch that he did not escape; but 
while the Princess escaped marrying Stephen, 
he still possessed the ring which kept Nardo 
from remembering he had ever loved the 
Princess. 

One night when the Princess was sitting in 
her window looking at the moon and sighing 
over her lost lover and his love she saw a 
nightingale caught by its wing in a tree. 

The tree was so close that the Princess had 
only to reach out and rescue the poor bird and 
set it free. 

The nightingale, in gratitude for its life, be- 
gan to sing so sweetly that the Princess ex- 
claimed, “ Oh, sing each night by my window, 
beautiful bird, that I may for a little while at 
least forget my sorrow.” 

The hour of midnight was just then striking, 
and as the last stroke of twelve died away the 
nightingale changed into a fairy. 

“ I am powerless to use my magic until the 


5 


54 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

hour of midnight strikes,” said the little fairy. 
' * I have chosen to become a nightingale until 
then, and the Queen will not give me the 
power of a fairy until I change my form to one. 

“If it had not been for your kindness I 
might never have become a fairy again, for the 
nightingale’s wing would have been broken, 
and no imperfect creature can reclaim its 
form, once it has changed from a fairy. 

“If I can help you, tell me and I will go to 
the Queen and ask to remain a fairy, and then 
no matter how hard the task you set I am sure 
I can make you happy.” 

Of course, the Princess did not know about 
the magic ring, and she could only tell the 
fairy how once she had feJt sure that Nardo 
loved her and then suddenly he had changed 
and would not notice her at all. 

The fairy listened to the Princess and told 
her not to worry ; that she was sure there was 
something wrong; that Nardo still loved her, 
and at midnight the next night she would 
return, and away she flittered in the moonlight, 
leaving the Princess happier than she had 
been for many a day. 

It took the fairy but a short time to unravel 
the mystery, and the next night when the Prin- 


NARDO AND THE PRINCESS 


55 

cess went to her window she found the little 
fairy waiting for her, perched on the sill. 

“ Do not grieve, my Princess,” said the fairy. 
“ Nardo still loves you ; it is all the work of his 
wicked brother Stephen, who loved you, too.” 

Then she told the Princess the story of the 
ring and how Stephen had got the old witch 
to get it for him, and that if he had given her 
the gold he would have married the Princess 
in spite of all she could have done. 

“ But if Nardo still loves me, why does he 
keep away? Why does he not tell me of his 
love?” asked the Princess. 

“He will, my dear Princess, when he re- 
members,” said the fairy, “and there is where 
the difficult part comes in. 

“We must get the ring or the stone. It is 
only the stone that holds the charm, but that 
it still on Stephen’s finger, and to get near to 
him the dragon must be overpowered.” 

“Oh! I will send all my father’s soldiers,” 
said the Princess; “they can kill the dragon, 
I am sure.” 

“Not a dragon that belongs to a witch,” 
said the fairy, “and if my plan works, and I 
think it will, we shall not need soldiers. I 
will be back before the sun rises. Wait for me.” 


56 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

Away went the fairy to her Queen and again 
asked to be changed into a nightingale. “It is 
to help some one in trouble, dear Queen,” 
she said, “and never again will I ask to 
change my form.” 

The Queen granted her wish and away flew 
the nightingale toward the sea, where lived the 
witch and the dragon. 

When she was near the cave she began her 
sweetest song, and as she flew nearer she sang 
more sweetly and softly until she alighted on 
a tree right over the rock where lay the dragon 
and the sleeping Stephen. 

The eyes of the dragon were wide open, 
watching on all sides for any one who might 
dare attempt to rescue Stephen. 

When he heard the sweet tones of the night- 
ingale the dragon raised its head and looked 
around, but, seeing only a bird perched over 
his head, he had no fear. Softly, sweetly, the 
nightingale trilled and sang its soothing song 
until at last the dragon began to nod its head, 
and after a while it dropped to the ground, 
fast asleep. 

The poor nightingale was so worn out with 
singing so long that it hardly had strength to 
fly down to where Stephen was sleeping. 


NARDO AND THE PRINCESS 57 

Very carefully it did so with only a soft 
waving of its wings, and then its bill plucked 
from the ring on Stephen's hand the red 
stone, and off it flew with the stone held 
tightly in its bill. 

Only once did it stop, and that was to sip 
a drop of dew from a rose-bush where it alight- 
ed to rest, and then on it went to the palace 
where Nardo was sleeping and flew through 
the window of his bedroom. 

Nardo’ s hand was open on the pillow beside 
his face, and into his hand the nightingale 
placed the red stone and flew away to the 
Princess. 

“Your lover will be here with the sun,” she 
said, “and as it is not far from that time I 
must fly to my Queen. 

“Farewell, my kind Princess. May you be 
happy with your Prince, and if you are as 
good and kind as a Queen as you were when 
a Princess I shall never regret my night’s 
work.” 

The Princess thanked her again and again, 
but the fairy was away before she had finished, 
and just then the sun peeped through the 
trees and at the same time the sound of horses’ 
hoofs was heard coming along the road. 


58 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

The Princess's cheeks grew red, for she knew 
it was her lover, and when she reached the 
palace door there he was just riding up. 

When the spell was broken for Nardo it 
released poor Stephen from the power of the 
witch ; the sea rolled in and the wind shrieked 
among the trees and the next thing Stephen 
knew he was running through the forest tow- 
ard his home. 

Of course, he was too much ashamed to tell 
of all that had happened to him and said he 
had been hunting in the forest and lost his 
way; and Nardo and the Princess kept his 
secret and did not let him know they were 
aware of his treachery, and as he grew to be 
a better man as the years went by, they were 
glad they did. 



OLD THREE HEADS 
NCE upon a time there was a little girl 



named Lucy. She was always opening 
doors and looking into rooms that did not 
belong to her, and it made her appear very 


rude. 


One day Lucy was sent to the woods to 
gather berries, but instead of filling her basket 
as she should have done she walked about, 
looking behind rocks and trees, thinking that 
she might find an opening in some of them. 

“ Better look out for Old Three Heads,” 
said a squirrel, as he ran past her. 

“I wonder what he means,” she said. “I 
must keep on looking, for somewhere around 
here Old Three Heads must live, or the squirrel 
would not have said 'look out,’ and I want 
to see what he is like.” 


6o SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


“ Better look out for Old Three Heads,” 
called a bird from the limb of a tree. 

“Better look out for Old Three Heads,” 
called a rabbit as he ran into his hole. 

“I wish some one would tell me where Old 
Three Heads lives,” said Lucy, “instead of 
just saying look out for him.” 

Just then she came to a path which led 
through thick bushes. 

“I will see where this leads,” she said. 
“Perhaps it leads to Old Three Heads’ 
house.” 

Lucy walked along the path and soon she 
saw a castle standing among the trees. Most 
little girls would have hesitated about going 
into a strange house, but Lucy’s curiosity was 
so great she thought only of seeing the inside 
of the castle. She walked up the steps and 
opened the door. The hall was long and dark, 
but she was not afraid. So she closed the door 
and walked along. 

There were many doors on each side of the 
hall, and Lucy opened one and looked in. In 
one comer of the room was a horse with three 
heads. “What a queer place to keep a horse !” 
thought Lucy. 

“Better look out for Old Three Heads,” 


OLD THREE HEADS 61 

said the horse, shaking all three heads and 
looking sad. 

“ How did you get three heads ?” asked Lucy. 

“I looked in the window one day when Old 
Three Heads was eating his dinner, and he 
saw me. You better look out,” he warned her 
again. 

Lucy thought of the other doors and de- 
cided to keep on, for she was very anxious to 
see what was behind all of them. 

She opened another door and a three-headed 
cat ran toward her. “You have only one 
head!” said the cat, in a tone of surprise. 
“You better look out for Old Three Heads.” 

“I am not afraid,” said Lucy, as she left 
the room and opened another door. In this 
room was a three-headed dog. He looked at 
her and said, “Better look out for Old Three 
Heads; you will find him if you keep on open- 
ing doors.” 

“I want to see him,” answered Lucy. 
“Where is he?” 

“You better run while you can,” said the 
dog, “but you will find him if you keep on, 
and then you will wish you had taken my 
advice.” 

But Lucy only laughed and went to another 


62 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

door. In that room she saw a three-headed 
cow. 

“ What a queer place !” she said. “I never 
saw animals living in a house before. Why 
are the animals kept in the house?” she asked 
the cow. 

“We belong to Old Three Heads,” replied 
the cow, “and every creature that comes in 
this castle has three heads. You better look 
out for Old Three Heads,” she warned her. 

“Why did you come in, if you knew you 
had to wear three heads?” asked Lucy. 

“We wanted to see what was in here, just 
as you did,” replied the cow. “The cat found 
the door open and she walked in to look about ; 
the dog saw her enter and he followed. Old 
Three Heads saw them. ‘You better look out,” 
she warned Lucy again. 

But Lucy was more curious than ever, and 
she kept on with her questions. 

“How did you and the horse get three 
heads?” she asked. “You did not walk in 
the door, did you?” 

“Not at first,” answered the cow. “The 
horse put his head in the window one day 
when it was open and Old Three Heads saw him. ’ * 

“And you,” asked Lucy again, for the cow 


OLD THREE HEADS 63 

stopped and hung her three heads, “what did 
you do?” 

“I saw some green corn on the window-sill,” 
the cow confessed, very slowly, “and I put 
my head in the window to get it and Old 
Three Heads saw me.” 

“What happens when he sees you?” she 
asked. 

“Wait and see,” replied the cow. “But I 
have warned you; you’d better look out for 
Old Three Heads and ran while you can.” 

As that was all the information she could 
get from the cow, Lucy told her she would 
find out for herself how they all got their three 
heads, and she went to the next door and 
opened it. 

The room was dark, and at first Lucy could 
not see anything, but some one said, “Who- 
who,” and as the sound came from a corner 
of the room Lucy went in and looked about. 

As her eyes became accustomed to the dark- 
ness she saw perched on the back of a chair 
an owl with three heads. 

“Well, of all things!” exclaimed Lucy. “How 
did so wise a bird as you happen to be caught 
by Old Three Heads?” she asked. 

“Who-who are you?” stuttered the owl. 


64 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

“You-you better look out for Old Three 
Heads,’ * he warned Lucy. 

“Tell me how it happened that you have 
three heads,” asked Lucy, ignoring the warn- 
ing as she had before. 

- “Who-who are you?” stuttered the owl 
again. 

“I am a girl,” said Lucy. “Can’t you see?” 

“Bet-bet-better look out,” warned the owl 
again. 

“Oh dear!” said Lucy. “You are worse 
than the others. I am going to find Old Three 
Heads and find out, if I qan, how all of you 
got three heads.” 

“Who-who,” said the owl as she went out 
of the room. 

Lucy opened another door, and there on the 
throne in this room sat a giant with three 
heads. She had found Old Three Heads at last. 

For the first time since she entered the 
castle Lucy was frightened when she saw the 
curious-looking creature; but there was no 
chance to escape; it was too late. 

The giant looked at her a second, and then 
he called out to his attendants, who all had 
three heads but were much smaller men: 
“Bring the intruder before me.” 


OLD THREE HEADS 


65 

“ Bring two heads,” he said, when Lucy 
stood before him. 

When the heads were brought one had black 
hair and one red. 

”1 do not want those heads,” said Lucy; 
“they do not match my hair. Can’t I have 
two golden-haired heads?” 

“Those are all I have,” said the giant, “and 
you will have to wear them. On with 
them,” he said, and the attendants fastened 
the heads on Lucy’s shoulders, one on each 
side of her own head. 

“I wish I could see myself,” said Lucy, 
still curious. 

“Take her to her room,” said the giant, and 
Lucy was taken to one of the rooms that 
opened out of the long hall. 

When she was alone she looked around the 
room and saw a mirror hanging on the wall. 
She ran and looked into it. The new heads 
looked very cross. 

“What is the matter with you?” asked 
Lucy. 

“I do not like red hair or light hair,” said 
the dark-haired head. 

“And I do not like dark hair or light hair/’ 
said the head with red hair, 


66 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


“I cannot help that,” said Lucy. “I did 
not want either of you.” 

“I will not stay here,” said the dark-haired 
head. 

“Neither will I,” said the head with the 
red hair. 

And they began to pull away. Lucy 
bent first to one side and then to the 
other, with the pulling of the quarrelsome 
heads. 

“Do keep quiet,” she said at last. “I am 
sorry I said anything about the color of your 
hair. If you will be good 111 try to get 
you something nice to eat.” 

This plan quieted the heads, and Lucy went 
to the door. It was not locked, and she opened 
it and went out. 

First she went to the room where the horse 
was. 

“Horse, can you tell me where I can get 
something to eat?” she asked. 

“Yes,” said the horse. “Go to the fire- 
place and call up the chimney.” 

“I want my dinner,” Lucy called. 

Down came a table with food upon it and 
a chair standing beside it. Lucy seated her- 
self and began to eat. 


OLD THREE HEADS 


67 


Then the trouble began; every time she 
raised the fork to her mouth the dark head or 
the head with red hair would stretch out their 
necks and take the food from the fork before 
Lucy could get a chance. 

The new heads quarreled because each 
thought the other was getting more than its 
share. 

Lucy put her fork and knife on the table in 
despair. ‘‘You are a pair of greedy heads,” 
she said. “I have not had a bite.” 

“ It is all your fault/ ’ said one ; ‘ ‘ you should 
not have got us.” 

Lucy went into the room where the cat 
was and asked her if she would tell her where 
she could get something to drink. 

“Rap three times on the wall,” said the 
cat. 

Lucy tried this and a cup appeared filled 
with water. Lucy tried to put it up to her lips, 
but the head with the red hair reached it and 
drank all the water. 

, Lucy rapped again, and another cup ap- 
peared, and this time the head with dark hair 
reached it and drank every drop of water be- 
fore Lucy could stop it. 

She tried several times, but each time the 


68 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


greedy heads drank it before she could get 
her lips to the cup. 

She went into the room where the dog was 
kept. 

“Where can I find a comfortable chair and 
a book?” she asked. 

“Tap on the floor three times,” the dog 
said. 

Lucy did as he said, and a chair appeared, 
and beside it a table filled with books. Lucy 
opened one of the books and looked at the 
pictures. 

“I cannot see them,” said the head with 
the red hair. Lucy moved the book to one side. 

‘ ‘ I should think you would remember that 
you have three heads,” said the head with 
the dark hair. “How do you expect me to 
see if you keep the book over that side?” 

Lucy moved the book to the other side, 
and then the head with the red hair began to 
fuss again. 

“Oh dear!” said Lucy. “You are the most 
selfish heads I ever saw. I will go to the 
cow and see if she can help me,” she said. 

“Where can I find a bed?” she asked the 
cow. “These heads have just tired me out.” 

“I will get you one,” said the cow. “Moo, 


OLD THREE HEADS 


69 

moo!” she called up and from the floor came 
a bed. 

Lucy lay down upon it. “I do not want to 
go to sleep,” said the head with dark hair. “I 
do,” said Lucy. 11 1 am tired and I am going 
to sleep ; you can stay awake if you wish to.” 

“I do not feel tired,” said the head with 
red hair; “I feel like singing,” and it began 
to sing so loudly that Lucy had to get up. 

“I’ll go to the owl and see if he can help 
me,” she said, as she went out of the room. 

She went into the room where the owl was 
and opened the window. The owl hid its 
three heads. 

“You are such a wise bird,” she said to the 
owl, “I wish you would tell me what to do 
with these new heads; they quarrel all the 
time.” 

“ Who-who!” said the owl. 

“I cannot understand how any one could 
ever think you were wise, ’ ’ said Lucy ; “all you 
can say is who-who. I wish I could be rid of 
these troublesome heads.” 

“Why don’t you, then?” said the head with 
red hair. “We come off if you pull hard.” 

“I never thought of that,” said Lucy, pull- 
ing at the head with red hair. 

6 


7 o SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

Off it came and flew through the window. 

Then she tried the other and it came off 
and followed the other through the window. 

“ Would you like to be rid of your extra 
heads?” Lucy asked the owl. 

“Who-who,” answered the owl. 

“You silly bird!” said Lucy, pulling at his 
extra heads. Off they came and followed 
Lucy’s heads. 

“ Let’s go to the cow,” said Lucy, “and take 
off her heads.” 

The owl tried to follow her, but bumped 
against the wall and fell to the floor. 

“Oh, I forgot that you could not see in the 
daytime,” said Lucy. “I’ll put you on my 
shoulder,” she said, picking him up from the 
floor. 

“Would you like to get rid of your extra 
heads?” Lucy asked the cow. 

“Of course I would,” she said. “How did 
you get rid of yours?” 

“I will show you,” said Lucy, pulling at 
the cow’s extra heads. Off they came and out 
the window they flew. 

“Well, I never should have thought of that,” 
said the cow. 

“Let us go to the cat and the dog and the 


OLD THREE HEADS 


7i 


horse,” said Lucy, “and help them to get rid 
of their troubles.” 

Each of them said they had never thought to 
try pulling the extra heads off, and they were 
very grateful to Lucy for helping them. 

The heads all flew out of the window and 
that was the last that was ever seen of them. 

“I think we should get out of this place as 
soon as we can,” said Lucy. “Old Three Heads 
might get us again.” 

They hurried out of the house and soon 
were in the woods a long way from the 
castle. 

“Did Old Three Heads get you?” asked 
the animals they met in the woods. 

Lucy told them he did. “But he will not 
bother you,” she said, “if you keep away from 
his house, and I warn you that three heads 
are a nuisance, and you may not be so fort- 
unate as we have been in escaping from 
them.” 

“Did you have to feed them all?” asked a 
squirrel. 

“Yes,” answered Lucy, “or at least I tried 
to, but they quarreled so that I had to go 
without.” 

“I will never go near Old Three Heads,” 


72 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

said the squirrel. “I have all I can do to take 
care of one head.” 

“I have had my lesson,” said Lucy. “I 
shall never look into rooms again when the 
door is closed, for one head is all I care to 
have.” 



THE ENCHANTED BOAT 

/^vNCE there was a King who had a very 
beautiful daughter, and when the Queen 
died the King married a woman who had a 
son named Tito because he thought this new 
Queen would be kind and good to the Prin- 
cess. 

But in this the King was greatly mistaken, 
for the Queen thought only of her son and 
wished to make him King. 

She told the King that if he would make 
the Princess marry Tito that he need have no 
fear about the future of his kingdom, for he 
could be sure her son would make a good king. 

“And a woman should not be Queen and 
rule alone such a big kingdom as you possess,” 
said the scheming Queen. 


74 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

The King, who thought more of his daugh- 
ter’s happiness than anything in the world, 
called the Princess and told her of his plan. 
“ Marry your stepmother’s son and all will 
be well with you and I can die happy,” he told 
the Princess. 

But the Princess did not want to marry Tito, 
for she did not love him, and when she found 
that her father would not listen to her plead- 
ings, but told her that very night she should 
wed Tito, the little Princess ran out of the 
palace and threw herself face down on the 
grass and wept. 

When it came time for the wedding she was 
nowhere to be found, and though the palace 
and the gardens were searched, it was all in 
vain. The Princess had disappeared. 

What had happened was that while the 
Princess was crying and bemoaning her sad 
lot she heard a sound, and when she looked 
up there was a lake she had never seen at the 
foot of the garden, and on it a beautiful boat 
with a sail of silk the color of gold. 

There was no one in the boat, and the Prin- 
cess, forgetting her sorrow in her wonderment 
at this strange sight, ran down to the water’s 
edge, where another surprise awaited her. For 


THE ENCHANTED BOAT 


75 


the boat came sailing straight to the place 
where she stood. 

The Princess stepped in, and away went the 
boat out over the blue water, and in a few 
minutes she was in a country she had never 
seen before. 

The little Princess was not frightened, for 
she felt sure nothing worse could befall her 
than if she stayed at the palace and had to 
marry Tito, and, while she was sorry to leave 
her father, she could not be happy with a man 
she did not love. 

The lake led to a river, along the banks of 
which were high hills and beautiful woods, and 
the Princess was so lost in admiring the beauty 
of the scene she did not notice they were ap- 
proaching a castle until her boat sailed under 
a white marble bridge, which soon brought her 
at the steps which led into the garden of the 
castle. 

Here the strange boat stopped and the 
Princess knew she was expected to get out. 

She walked up the steps into a garden filled 
with pink and white roses, with a fountain of 
pearl and gold in the center which threw a 
perfumed spray all about, which filled the air 
with fragrance. 


76 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

There were no paths in the garden, but the 
grass was like green velvet and yellow birds 
flittered among the small green trees and sang 
sweet songs. 

Through the roses and trees the Princess 
saw the entrance to the castle, and on the 
broad steps of marble and gold came a queer- 
looking creature followed by more servants 
than the Princess had ever seen in her 
father’s palace. 

The Princess did not feel at all afraid, al- 
though the strange-looking creature had the 
body of a beautiful leopard, while his head was 
that of the handsomest youth the Princess 
had ever beheld. 

His hair was dark and as he came nearer 
to her the Princess saw that his eyes were 
deep blue, the kindest eyes she had ever seen. 

He held out one huge paw toward her and 
then withdrew it and said, “I fear you will 
not care to take the paw of such a beast as I 
am, but I can assure you I will not harm you, 
Princess.” 

“I am not afraid,” said the Princess, putting 
out her hand, “but tell me how you know that 
I am a princess?*’ 

After the leopard-man had taken her hand 


THE ENCHANTED BOAT 


77 


he led her up the steps, arid as they walked 
along he told her that no one but a princess 
could have entered the boat. “It had sailed 
for many a year in quest of the princess who 
would be willing to sail away in it,” he told 
her, “and as only a princess can help me, no 
one but a princess could get into the enchanted 
boat.” 

When the Princess and the leopard-man en- 
tered the castle he told her his strange story. 
He was a prince who had been changed by a 
witch into the shape she saw, and the only 
thing that could save him was a gold root 
which grew far up on a blue mountain- 
peak. 

* ‘ But that root must be brought to me by a 
princess and no one else,” said the leopard- 
man, “so you see how impossible it is that I 
shall ever regain my own shape.” 

“If you will tell me where this blue moun- 
tain-peak can be found,” said the Princess, 
“I will undertake the task, for I do not wish 
to return to my father's palace, and I would 
like to help you.” 

“The enchanted boat will take you if you 
really wish to try,” said the leopard-man, “but 
I fear it is a task you are far from fitted to 


78 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

undertake, tor no one can go with you; that 
would break the spell.” 

The Princess, however, told him she would 
try, and at once set out on the strange errand, 
the boat sailing along the river and then out 
into the open sea 

By and by the Princess saw on the side of a 
high mountain, the top of which was blue, 
something growing which shone like gold, and 
she knew it must be the golden root for which 
she was seeking. 

The enchanted boat sailed close to the foot 
of the mountain and stopped, and the Princess 
knew she was to get out, but how was she to 
reach the golden root which grew far up on 
the mountain? 

The Princess stepped out of the boat on 
the rocks and sat down to think what she 
could do, for to climb up the steep, smooth 
side of the mountain was out of the question ; 
if only she could fly she thought she might 
reach it. 

Just then she heard a swishing sound, and, 
looking up, she saw a big eagle coming toward 
her with a broken leg. 

The bird fell at her feet, and, as so many 
strange things had already happened, the Prin- 


THE ENCHANTED BOAT 


79 


cess did not feel afraid of the big creature, for 
she felt sure that in some way he would help 
her. 

“Oh, you poor hurt bird!” she said, tearing 
off a piece of her dress to bind up its leg ; then 
from a stream falling from the mountain she 
brought in the ho] low of her hand water for 
him to drink. 

At night the Princess took off her cloak and 
covered the eagle, while she huddled close to 
the mountain and behind a rock to keep the 
cold from herself. 

In the morning she was surprised to find the 
eagle had flown away, but on the rocks was her 
cloak, and two feathers from the wings of the 
bird lay beside it. 

The Princess put on her cloak and took up 
one of the feathers, and to her surprise the 
hand that held the feather flew up over her 
head. 

She picked up the other feather with the 
other hand and up she was carried, her cloak 
spreading out like a pair of wings. 

With the feathers she guided herself until 
she alighted on the top of the blue-peaked 
mountain. 

She laid the feathers down and began to dig 


80 SANHMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

for the’ root which the Prince had said was 
the only thing that could save him. 

When she had enough of the golden root 
she again took the feathers, one in each hand, 
and flew down to the water, where the en- 
chanted boat, which had sailed away when 
she left it, now stood waiting. 

The feathers from the eagle she put care- 
fully on the rocks, but the bird was nowhere 
to be seen, and, knowing that it must have 
been a part of the magic plan to help her, the 
Princess sailed away, feeling sure the eagle was 
safe and his bfoken leg quite well. 

When she reached the castle of the leopard- 
man he was on the steps to meet her and with- 
out waiting to enter the castle he took the 
golden root from her and tasted it. 

The leopard body disappeared and there he 
stood before her, a tall, handsome youth whom 
any maiden, even a princess, would fall in love 
with. 

The Princess told him her story and the 
Prince told her they would go at once to her 
father and he would ask for her hand, for he 
had already asked for her heart and found 
that it was his. 

The enchanted boat took them back to the 


THE ENCHANTED BOAT 


garden of the King, where they found that 
the Queen, when she knew that her son had 
lost the chance of becoming King when the 
Princess disappeared, had put the King in a 
dungeon under the palace and she and her 
son had become the rulers of the kingdom. 

The Prince quickly undid all this mischief 
by setting the King free, and when he found 
out how treacherous his Queen really was he 
sent her, with her son, away from the palace 
and told them never to return or they would 
both be put in prison. 

He was a kind-hearted King and gave them 
gold to care for them the rest of their days, 
and it did not take them long to leave the 
palace, you may be sure, for already the wed- 
ding feast was being made ready for the mar- 
riage of the Princess and her Prince. 

The enchanted boat now was not needed, 
and that with the lake disappeared, but 
when the Princess set out with her husband 
to go to the castle she found that it was 
within her father’s kingdom that the Prince 
had lived. 

At the end of the castle garden where the 
Prince and the Princess live is a long stone 
seat, and at one end grows a bush of golden 


82 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


flowers, the like of which no one ever saw be- 
fore, and at the other is the figure of a big eagle 
made of gold and bronze, but only the Princess 
and her husband know what these things 
mean. 



NICKO AND THE OGRE 

/^vNCE upon a time there lived on the banks 
of a deep, wide river an ogre who ate all 
the fish in the river, never letting the people 
who lived in the town come near the river to 
fish. 

And this was not all the ogre did. He would 
make such a noise when he slept that all the 
children were frightened so they could not 
sleep at night, and the people decided at last 
that something must be done. 

One day a youth named Nicko said he 
would go to an old witch who lived in the forest 
and ask her what could be done. 

So to this witch the youth went. '‘There is 
only one way to get rid of the ogre,” she 
told Nicko, “and that secret is known only to 


8 4 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

a mermaid, who comes up from the river every 
night and sings to the ogre.” 

Of course the ogre would see Nicko if he 
went to the mermaid when she was singing, 
so he decided to have a suit made of green and 
silver that would make him look like a huge 
fish and dive into the river, hoping in that way 
to find the home of the mermaid and learn the 
secret she knew. 

One night after the mermaid had finished 
her song to the ogre, Nicko slipped from be- 
hind a rock where he was hidden, dressed in 
his green-and-silver suit, and swam to the place 
he had seen the mermaid go under the water. 

Down, down he went, and just before he 
reached the bottom of the river the mermaid 
turned around and saw him. 

She had never seen such a beautiful big fish 
before and the silver glistened and shone so 
in the moonlight that the mermaid was filled 
with envy. 

“Oh, beautiful fish, tell me where you got 
your shining coat ! I must have a dress like it 
at once,” she said, swimming along beside 
Nicko. 

“I will tell you, beautiful mermaid, will- 
ingly, and I will bring you a dress of wonder- 


NICKO AND THE OGRE 


85 


ful brightness,” said Nicko, “if you will tell 
me how the people who live in the river town 
can get rid of the ogre you sing to every night.” 

The mermaid no longer smiled when she 
heard this; her face looked sad and unhappy. 

“That can never be done; for the way to 
be rid of the ogre is beyond my power, al- 
though I know the secret,” answered the mer- 
maid; “but you cannot help me.” 

“Well, if I cannot help you, at least tell me 
how it could be brought about that the river 
folk could be rid of their trouble.” 

“A mortal must come to this river and live 
here,” said the mermaid. “And he must 
marry me. Now you see how impossible it 
is for any one to learn the rest of the secret, 
for who would marry a mermaid and live at 
the bottom of the river?” 

Nicko had fallen in love with the pretty 
mermaid at first sight, and when he heard this 
he said: “Show me your home, pretty maid. 
Perhaps I can help you, even if I am only a fish. ’ ’ 

To the very bottom of the river the mermaid 
took Nicko, and when they stood on the white 
sand before her home of crystal Nicko said: 

“Mermaid, I love you! Behold your mortal 
lover. Will you be my wife?” 

7 


86; SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

As he spoke he threw off the green-and-silver 
costume he wore, and there stood the mortal 
who had come to woo her. 

The pretty little mermaid blushed and hung 
her head. “I did not know; I could never 
have guessed you were a mortal/’ she stam- 
mered. 

“Of course you couldn’t,” said Nicko, al- 
most forgetting why he was there, he was so 
very much in love with the pretty creature. 
“Now where shall I find your father?” he 
asked. 

The little mermaid clapped her tiny hands, 
and from under the rock came many little 
silver-colored fish, swimming all around her. 

“Run quickly and tell the dolphin to find 
Father Neptune,” said the mermaid. 

Soon the water began to roll and tumble 
about, and Nicko saw swimming toward them 
two sea-horses drawing a chariot in which 
stood a man carrying in one hand a curious 
and big three-pronged fork. 

“He is Father Neptune,” said the mermaid. 
“Ask him for me if you wish.” 

“Well, young mortal, what do you wish 
here at the bottom of my river?” asked Father 
Neptune. 


NICKO AND THE OGRE 


87 


At first Nicko did not know what to say, 
for Father Neptune was very big and stern- 
looking; but when he saw the little mermaid 
swim up to him and lean her head against his 
shoulder he took courage and spoke. 

“I wish to marry your daughter,” he said, 
“and live at the bottom of the river.” 

Father Neptune began to smile. “The spell 
is broken for you, my dear,” he said to the 
little mermaid, “and I am glad. I would have 
helped you before this if I could, but it was 
not in my power. 

“ She is yours, mortal youth,” said Neptune. 
“I pronounce you man and wife. And now 
we will see what can be done to get rid of that 
awful ogre on the bank of the river. He has 
bothered me so much, I shall be glad to have 
him gone.” 

“Now we are married,” said the mermaid 
to Nicko, “I can tell you I am not a mermaid 
at all, but a king’s daughter who was changed 
into a mermaid to sing for the ogre because my 
father did not invite the dreadful ogre to a 
feast at his palace one night. 

“The ogre cast a spell over me which 
could be broken only when a mortal should 
come to the bottom of the river and ask me 


88 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


to marry him, which the ogre thought never 
could happen. 

“ Now it is my turn to have the ogre changed 
into another form, and if Father Neptune will, 
consent I will ask the old forest witch to change 
him into a big rock in the middle of the river.” 

“Very well, my dear,” said Father Neptune, 
“a big rock will be an addition to my river, 
and when I run in here to rest my sea-horses 
will have a place to play and my dolphins a 
place to sit.” 

“Good-by, Father Neptune,” said the mer- 
maid. “I shall no longer wear this form after 
to-night, for when I touch the land I shall be 
a mortal again.” 

“I will take you to the shore,” said Father 
Neptune; “jump in, both of you.” It took 
only a minute for the sea-horses to dash to 
the top of the river, and another for them to 
bring the chariot to the bank of the river near 
the forest. 

Nicko jumped out and lifted the little mer- 
maid to the ground, which she no sooner 
touched than before him stood a beautiful 
young girl on two dainty feet. 

When he looked around Father Neptune 
was gone and the Princess (for we must call 


NICKO AND THE OGRE 


89 


her so now) said: “We must hurry to the 
witch and tell her before sunrise, or the ogre 
will have another day in which to bother the 
river- town people.” 

When the old witch saw the Princess she 
began to laugh. “ Ha-ha!” she said. “Now 
the ogre will be in my power. Leave him to 
me, my dear. I will change him into any 
shape you wish.” 

The Princess told her she wished him 
changed into a huge rock to be placed in the 
middle of the river. 

“Come along, my pretties; you shall see it 
done,” said the old witch, clapping her hands 
as she spoke. 

Up from behind the cave jumped a big 
broomstick, and on it hopped the witch and 
the Princess and Nicko, and off they flew to 
the place where the ogre sat fishing by the river. 

When they were near enough for the old 
witch to touch him with her crooked cane 
she leaned over and tapped him on the head 
and said: 

“ In the middle of the river, 

To dwell there forever, 

A rock you shall be 
So all folks may see.” 


9 o SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

A peal of thunder that shook the woods 
around was heard, and then a loud splash. 

When the mist of the splashing water 
cleared Nicko and the Princess saw a huge 
black rock in the middle of the river, and the 
next thing they knew they were flying through 
the air with the old witch again. 

“Here is your home, Princess,” said the 
witch at last. “They will be waiting for you 
and your husband, for I sent word you had 
been rescued, and a feast is being made in 
honor of your marriage.” 

Before Nicko or his bride could thank the 
witch she was far above their heads and flying 
away. 

The King and the Queen were overjoyed to 
have their daughter again and gave Nicko 
such a welcome that he quite forgot his home 
by the river and never returned. 

But this did not matter, as he was an orphan, 
but no one thought of him as being the cause 
of the ogre’s disappearance. The people in 
the river town knew the ogre had gone, and 
they cared not who brought it about. 

Nicko and the Princess lived happily ever 
after, and one day became the King and Queen 
in the country where they lived. 



THE GINGERBREAD ROCK 

^ANCE there lived near a forest a little boy 
named Hans and his sister, whose name 
was Lisbeth. 

Their parents had died when they were tiny 
and their uncle had taken them because he 
thought they could do all the work and so 
save the money he would have to pay for a 
servant. 

But this uncle was a miser and gave Hans 
and Lisbeth very little to eat, so very little 
that often they went to bed very hungry. 

One night when they were more hungry 
than usual, for they had worked hard all day, 
Hans whispered from his cot in one comer of 
the room: “ Lisbeth, let us get up and go into 
the woods. It is bright moonlight and we may 



92 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

be able to find some berries. I am so hungry 
I cannot go to sleep.” 

So out of the house they went, making sure 
their uncle was sound asleep, and soon they 
were running along the path through the 
woods. 

Suddenly Hans stopped and drew Lisbeth 
back of a tree. “ Look!” he said, in a whisper, 
“ there is smoke coming from the side of that 
great rock.” 

Lisbeth looked and, sure enough, a tiny curl- 
ing smoke was coming from a little opening in 
the rock. 

Very cautiously the children crept up to 
the rock and Hans stood on tiotoe and sniffed 
at the smoke. 

“It is a pipe,” he whispered into Lisbeth’s 
ear. “Some one is inside the rock, smoking.” 

“No one could live inside a rock,” said 
Lisbeth, creeping closer and standing on a 
stone that she, too, might sniff at the curling 
smoke. 

Lisbeth became curious when she dis- 
covered it was the smoke from a pipe. “You 
could boost me, Hans,” she said, “and I 
could peep in and see if some one is inside/ 

Hans told her he did not think it was nice 


THE GINGERBREAD ROCK 


93 


to peek, but Lisbeth told him it was very dif- 
ferent from peeking into a house, and so Hans 
boosted her, for he was just as curious as his 
sister. 

Lisbeth grasped the edge of the opening in 
the big rock with both her little hands, when, 
to the surprise of both children, it crumbled 
and Lisbeth lost her balance. 

Over went both of them on the soft moss, 
and when they sat up Lisbeth held something 
in both her little hands. 

“It's cake!” she said, with wide-open eyes. 
“No; it is gingerbread !” she corrected, as she 
tasted it. 

And, sure enough, it was gingerbread; the 
rock, instead of being stone, was all ginger- 
bread. 

Hans and Lisbeth forgot the smoke and 
their curiosity in the joy of their discovery, 
and soon both of them were eating as fast as 
they could big pieces of the Gingerbread Rock. 

Hans and Lisbeth were not greedy children. 
So when they had satisfied their hunger they 
ran off home without taking even a piece of 
the gingerbread with them to eat the next day. 

They were soon in bed and asleep, and if 
each had not told to the other the same story 


94 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

the next morning they would have been sure 
they had dreamed it all. 

The next night they were hungry, as usual, 
and when the moon was well up in the sky 
out they crept again and ran into the woods. 

But this time there was no curling smoke 
to guide them, and they tried several rocks 
before they found the gingerbread. For, 
strange to say, the place they had broken 
away did not show at all and there were so 
many rocks the children could not find it. 

But at last Hans cried out with joy, “Here 
it is, Lisbeth!” and held up a big piece of 
gingerbread he had broken off. 

Lisbeth, in her hurry to get a piece, broke 
off much more than she intended, and, to the 
surprise of both children, a big opening was 
made, large enough for them to step through. 

“ Perhaps we may find out where the smoke 
came from,” said Lisbeth, suddenly remember- 
ing the smoke they had seen the night before. 

Eating as they went, both of them stepped 
inside the rock and walked into a big room 
where, by the table, sat an old man asleep. 

His glasses had tumbled off his nose and 
the pipe he had been smoking was on the 
floor beside him, where it had tumbled. His 


THE GINGERBREAD ROCK 


95 


lamp had gone out and his paper had slipped 
from his hand. 

Lisbeth and Hans looked at him and then 
at the gingerbread they held. ‘ 1 It is his house, ’ * 
said Hans. 

“And we are eating it up! What shall 
we do?” asked Lisbeth, looking very much 
frightened. 

“Better wake him up and tell him,” said 
Hans, “and perhaps he will let us bake some 
more and mend the place we have broken.” 

“I’ll pick up his paper and pipe and brush 
up the ashes,” said tidy little Lisbeth, “and 
you light his lamp, and perhaps he will forgive 
us when we tell him we did not know it was 
his house we were eating.” 

But instead of being cross when he awoke, 
the old man smiled at them and asked, “Did 
you eat all you wanted of the gingerbread?” 

Hans told him they were very sorry and 
that they did not know any one lived inside 
when they ate the gingerbread. 

“We will bake you some more and patch 
the place we made,” said Lisbeth. 

“Right through that door you will find the 
kitchen,” said the old man. “Run along, if 
you like, and bake it.” 


9 6 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

And such a kitchen as Hans and Lisbeth 
found, for Hans went along, you may be sure, 
to fix the fire for his sister! 

The shelves and cupboards were filled with 
flour and butter and eggs and milk and cream 
and meat and pies, cookies, puddings, but no 
gingerbread. 

“We will get breakfast first for the man,” 
said Lisbeth, “for I am sure he must be hungry 
and it is growing light. Look out the window. ’ ’ 

To Hans’s surprise there was a window. 
Then he saw a door, and when he looked out 
he found they were in a pretty white house 
with green blinds and not a rock, as he had 
supposed. 

Hans and Lisbeth became so interested in 
cooking they quite forgot their own home or 
the unkind uncle who almost starved them, 
and when the breakfast was ready they put it 
on the table beside the old man. 

“I thought you would like your breakfast,” 
explained Lisbeth, “and now we will make 
the gingerbread and repair your house.” 

“After breakfast you may, if you like,” said 
the old man, “but first both of you must eat 
with me.” 

My, how Hans and Lisbeth did eat, for 


THE GINGERBREAD ROCK 


97 


while Lisbeth had cooked only ham and eggs 
enough for the old man’s breakfast, there 
seemed to be quite enough for them all. 

And while they are eating we will see what 
the miser uncle was doing, for he had called 
the children at break of day and they were 
not to be found. 

It happened that the ground was damp and 
the uncle saw the prints of their feet from the 
door to the road and along the road to the 
path in the woods, and then the soft leaves 
and moss did not show where they went. 

Thinking they had run away and gone into 
the woods, their uncle hurried along, calling 
their names at the top of his voice. 

As he came near the Gingerbread Rock the 
children heard him and began to tremble. “It 
is uncle,” said Hans. “He will be very angry 
because we have not done our work.” 

“Sit still,” said the old man as the children 
started to leave the table, and, taking his pipe, 
the old man sat down under a little opening 
like a tiny window and began to smoke. 

Soon the children could hear their uncle 
climbing up outside, and they knew he had 
seen the smoke just as they had the night 
before, and was trying to look in. 


98 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

Then they heard him tumble just as Lisbeth 
had when the Gingerbread Rock broke off in 
her hands, and they knew he had discovered 
it was good to eat, for all was still for a few 
minutes. 

Nothing was heard again for a long time, 
and then the sound of some one breaking off 
big pieces was heard, and when Hans and 
Lisbeth climbed up, as the old man told them 
to do, and looked out of the opening they saw 
their uncle with a shovel and a wheelbarrow. 

He was breaking off big pieces of gingerbread 
and filling the barrow as fast as he could. 

But when he had filled it he could not move 
it, for it was no longer gingerbread, but stone 
he had to carry. 

The old man motioned to the children to 
keep quiet, and he opened a door they had 
not noticed and went out. 

Just what he said the children never knew. 
But they soon found out that instead of being 
poor, as they had thought, their miser uncle 
had taken all the silver and gold their parents 
had left and hidden it in his cellar under the 
stones. 

The miser uncle disappeared and was never 
seen again, and the old man, who was really 


THE GINGERBREAD ROCK 


99 


a wizard, told them where to go and what to 
do with their wealth. So they were happy 
ever after. 

Of course, they never forgot the Ginger- 
bread Rock or the kind old man. But because 
he was a wizard they knew they would never 
see him again, for fairies and witches and 
wizards are all enchanted and disappear in a 
very strange manner. 

“Our good fortune came to us because we 
tried to be kind to the old man, I am sure,” 
said Hans one day, when they were talking 
about the Gingerbread Rock. 

“Yes, and because we wanted to repair the 
damage we had done he knew we did not 
mean to do any harm,” said Lisbeth; “but 
I shall never eat gingerbread again without 
thinking of him.” 

“Nor I.” said Hans. 



PRINCE ROUL’S BRIDE 

O NCE upon a time in a far-off land there 
lived by an ocean an ogre and his wife. 
Their home was a cave in a big white rock 
which was so white it shone like a light even 
in the darkest night, and many a ship had 
thought it a harbor in a storm and been 
wrecked by the shore where the ogre lived. 

And this was the way he lived, because 
the ships carried rich cargoes and the ogre 
lost no time in helping himself to all that he 
could find, while the sailors were glad to 
escape in lifeboats when they saw the dread- 
ful-looking ogre, who was so big and strong 
he could lift a ship. 

In the same country, miles and miles away 
from the ogre’s cave, lived a rich king, who 


PRINCE ROUL’S BRIDE 


IOI 


had a son named Roul, and one day while the 
Prince was out hunting he passed in the woods 
a cabin where lived a poor girl named Leta. 

But while Leta was very poor she was also 
very pretty, and as the Prince rode past he 
saw her at the window and raised his plumed 
hat and smiled. 

The next day Prince Roul again rode to the 
woods and this time he did not pass Leta’s 
cabin. He stopped his horse in front of her 
door and asked for a drink of water. 

He had thought Leta pretty through the 
window, but when he beheld her this time he 
completely lost his heart, and day after day 
he went to the cottage and talked to pretty Leta. 

After a while the King told his son it was 
time he was looking for a wife, as he wanted 
to see him married before he died and know 
that his wife was worthy to be a queen. 

So the King gave a feast which lasted for 
weeks, and princesses from far and near were 
asked that Prince Roul might choose for him- 
self a wife, for, as I said before, the King was 
very rich and all the kings in the other 
countries were anxious, of course, to have 
Prince Roul for a son-in-law. 

But Prince Roul did not choose a wife from 

8 


io2 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

among the beautiful princesses, for he was 
already in love with pretty Leta, and while 
he knew full well his father would never give 
his consent to their marriage, he was deter- 
mined he would wed no one else. 

On the last day of the feast the King told 
him he would have to choose. “You have 
before you the beautiful women of the land,” 
said the King. “Make your choice at once, 
and the wedding shall take place this night.” 

“Father, you have not brought to me the 
most beautiful woman in the world,” replied 
Prince Roul. “ If you had I should have asked 
her to be my wife before this.” 

“What do you mean?” asked the King. 
“All the princesses in the land are here.” 

“Ah yes, that is true,” replied the Prince, 
“but the most beautiful woman in the world 
is not a princess, as you think of them, but 
she is a Princess for all that. Father, she is 
the Princess of my heart and I cannot marry 
any other woman.” 

Then the King made the Prince tell him who 
she was that he loved so dearly, and when he 
learned Leta was a poor girl who lived in the 
woods close by, he was very angry and told 
the Prince he should never wed her. 


PRINCE ROUL’S BRIDE 


103 


All the beautiful princesses were sent home, 
and the angry King called his servants to 
him and commanded that they should go to 
the woods and find this girl who had upset his 
plans for his son. 

“Find her and chase her out of the woods; 
drive her into another land where the Prince 
will never find her,” he told them. 

But the King had forgotten one very im- 
portant thing, and that was his son, for he 
should have made him a prisoner before he 
gave such an order. This he did not do, and 
Prince Roul, who overheard what his father 
had said, lost no time in jumping on his horse 
and making his way to the woods ahead of 
the servants of the King. 

“Jump up behind me,” he said to Beta 
when she came out of the cabin, and away 
they rode, the feet of Prince Roul’s horse 
scarcely touching the ground as they fled. 

The King’s servants were not long in dis- 
covering that the Prince had outwitted them, 
but they gave chase and away they went 
through the w T oods, while poor frightened 
little Lcta clung to the Prince, wondering 
what it was all about. 

On and on they rode, but to Leta clinging to 


io 4 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

her lover, it seemed they flew over the ground 
and through the woods . She could see the bright 
trimmings of the servants’ coats glistening in the 
sun, and she knew they were gaining on them. 

By this time Prince Roul had told her that 
his father, the King, had tried to make him 
marry a princess, but that he would marry no 
one but the girl he loved and that was herself. 

When Leta heard this she was more fright- 
ened than ever, for she knew now that she 
was the cause of all this trouble and that the 
servants must be chasing them to take Roul 
from her. 

Leta put her hand to her breast. Yes; it 
was there — the little paper with the powder a 
fairy had given her a long time ago, because 
Leta had left a beautiful rose on its stem she 
was about to pick when she discovered a little 
fairy sleeping inside the rose. 

“If you ever are in trouble, open this paper 
and throw the powder around you,” the fairy 
had told her. “It will protect you from all 
harm.” 

Leta had never before needed protection, 
and she was not thinking so much of herself 
now as of her lover, wondering what the King 
would do if he did not obey him. 


PRINCE ROUL’S BRIDE 


io 5 

Just then the horse on which they were 
riding came to a full stop with such force that 
Leta was thrown to the ground and the next 
thing she knew over the side of a cliff leaped 
the horse with the Prince on his back. 

The ocean was below, but before the horse 
and his rider had reached it Leta drew from 
her dress the magic powder and threw it over 
the cliff. 

“Make the ocean dry,” she screamed as 
she threw the powder, and, to her surprise, 
as she threw it over she went, too, and the 
next instant she stood beside Prince Roul on 
dry land before a beautiful white castle and 
the ocean was miles away 

The cliff over which they had gone was the 
white rock where the ogre and the ogress 
lived, but when Leta threw the powder she 
had also summoned the little fairy who had 
given it to her and she had changed the big 
white cave into a castle. 

When the King’s servants came dashing up 
to the cliff they saw nothing of the Prince or 
his horse, and the bottom of the cliff was so 
far below that they felt sure they had been 
destroyed, and they rode home to the King 
with the sad news. 


io6 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


The King’s grief was deep and bitter, for he 
really loved his son very much, and now when 
it was too late he cried out that he wished he 
had let the Prince marry the girl he loved ; if 
only he had him alive that would be all he 
would ask. 

The little fairy did not make herself visible 
to either Leta or the Prince, but if they could 
have seen with fairy eyes they would have seen 
the fairy flying ahead of them into the castle, 
touching everything with her magic wand as 
she went. 

When Leta entered the door, which was 
open, for they had called and no one answered, 
she stood spellbound by what she saw. 

The long white marble hall had a floor of 
silver and marble and the doors were silver 
also. 

The Prince, who was used to beautiful 
things, was quite surprised at all the splendor, 
too. 

Opening a big silver door, they entered a 
room hung with silver and deep-blue curtains, 
and on a silver table Leta saw a big white 
envelop. When she looked at it she read her 
own name. 

Wondering who could have left it, she 


PRINCE ROUL’S BRIDE 


107 


opened it and read: “ Princess Leta, this is 
your castle; it is the gift of the fairies who 
love roses.” 

“ Your father will not object now to having 
me for the wife of his son,” she said, with a 
blush, as she gave the note to the Prince, and 
then they ran like two happy children through 
the beautiful castle that had come to them so 
strangely. 

In the deep dungeons under the castle they 
found all the wealth that the ogre had taken 
from the ships, and after they had become 
used to their new home they gave it all to the 
poor, and so the ogre’s stolen wealth did not 
help him, and while it could not be given back 
to those who had lost it, it did much good. 

And what became of the old ogre and his 
wife, you are wondering. I will tell you. When 
the fairy changed the cave into a castle she 
changed the ogre and ogress into two big silver 
statues in the big hall, one at each end, like 
huge mummies, holding a big light in their 
hands, which lighted the long hall of the castle. 

Then one day Prince Roul and Princess 
Leta rode away to the palace of the old King, 
and when he saw his son he wept for joy and 
hugged him to his heart, and Leta’s pretty 


io8 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


face won the old King’s heart at once, so they 
all lived happily ever after. 

But while the old King wanted them to 
make the palace their home, Prince Roul and 
Leta could not give up their white castle by 
the sea, so part of the year they lived in the 
white castle, and when Prince Roul grew old 
and his grandchildren begged for a story, the 
King told them of Prince Roul’s bride and 
the wonderful leap they took over the cliff 
which forms the back of the castle. 



SUNEV 

'T'HERE was once a poor peasant and his 
* wife who had a very beautiful daughter 
named Sunev. So ’beautiful was she that her 
hair rivaled the sun in its golden brightness. 
Her eyes were like the blue sky and her lips 
were so red that the roses beheld her with 
envy. Her skin was so white and fair that 
the winter snow was not whiter. Her teeth 
were like the pearls. And when an old witch 
named Zitna, who lived in the forest near by, 
saw Sunev one day she became enraged be- 
cause she was more beautiful than her own 
daughter. 

Witch Zitna had thought till then that her 
own daughter was the most beautiful creature 
in the world, for the witch child was as dark 


no 


SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


as Sunev was fair, and Witch Zitna wished the 
Prince of Esor, who was looking for a wife, to 
wed her. 

She knew that the Prince had sent out his 
servants far and near to look for the most 
beautiful lady in the country for his wife, 
and if Sunev were brought before the Prince 
of Esor her daughter would never be chosen. 

There was only one thing to do, and that 
was to entice the lovely Sunev into the forest 
and there change her into the shape of an 
animal and leave her to her fate. 

The wicked Witch Zitna watched her chance, 
and one day, when Sunev was sent into the 
forest to gather wood, Witch Zitna slipped 
out from behind a tree and touched her with 
her magic stick, changing her into a tiger. 

•Poor little Sunev was so frightened when 
she beheld her paws she fell on the ground and 
began to moan and cry and all the birds and 
animals of the forest came running to see what 
had happened. 

The witch, in her haste, forgot to deprive 
Sunev of her power to talk, so when the birds 
and animals wanted to know what was the 
matter she told them she did not know, but 
something dreadful had happened and she was 


SUNEV 


hi 


no longer a girl, but a tiger, and was afraid 
to go home. 

The birds and animals can understand any 
language, and, being now part animal herself, 
Sunev had no trouble in understanding them. 

“Do not cry,” they told her. “It must be 
the work of Witch Zitna, but we will protect 
you, and when the hunters come we will warn 
you so you may hide until they go. Eat the 
berries and nuts and we will find you a nice 
place to sleep, so dry your eyes and some way 
may be found to restore you to your own shape. ’ ' 

Sunev did as the birds and animals told her, 
for there was no other way, and soon she be- 
came fond of her forest home and all her new 
friends. 

Witch Zitna now proceeded to have her 
beautiful daughter seen by the messengers of 
the Prince of Esor, and they carried her off 
to his palace, sure they had found at last a 
wife that would suit their royal master. 

Of course the parents of little Sunev looked 
everywhere for her, but she could not be found, 
and when they saw the tiger coming toward 
them they fled, for they did not know that 
the beautiful and graceful tiger-skin held their 
own child. 


1 1 2 


SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


The Prince of Esor, when he saw the witch 
child, thought that she was beautiful, but he 
had wished for a wife that was as fair, so he 
decided to wait, and sent out his servants again 
to look for a lady with golden hair. 

Witch Zitna was enraged when she heard 
this, for she knew that until her daughter was 
safely married to the Prince she was not safe. 

The reason for this was that every night 
Venus, the goddess of beauty, came to the 
forest to look for the graceful tiger the fairies 
had told her about, for, while Sunev looked 
like a tiger, she had more grace and beauty 
than a real tiger, though they are graceful, 
too. 

Venus did not wish even a tiger to rival her 
in being graceful, so she wanted to see this 
wonderful animal that she might learn from 
it more charm. 

One night Sunev was walking through the 
forest in the moonlight when Venus, in the 
form of a tree, beheld her. 

Knowing at once that the graceful tiger was 
a mortal changed, she called her attendants, 
who were not far away, and, changing herself 
back to her own beautiful form, she spoke to 
Sunev. 


SUNEV 


n 3 

“ What is your name, beautiful creature, and 
why are you in this form?” she asked. 

It was the first time any one but the birds 
and animals had spoken to her since Witch 
Zitna had changed her, and poor little Sunev 
began to cry for joy. 

Venus soothed her and soon Sunev told her 
all she knew of her sad plight. But when she 
told the goddess her name a flash of anger 
came to the eyes of Venus. 

“Old Witch Zitna has done this,” said the 
goddess. “She shall pay for it, for, my dear, 
your name is mine spelled backward and you 
are my ‘godchild. Zitna knew she had much 
to fear in the beauty you possess. Come with 
me!” 

It did not take long to reach the cave of 
Zitna, for Venus had the power of witches 
and fairies when she wished to use it. 

“Come forth!” called Venus, when they 
reached the cave of Zitna. “Undo your 
cruel work,” she commanded, when the 
trembling witch appeared in the doorway of 
her cave. 

In another minute Sunev stood in her own 
lovely shape before Venus, who, instead of 
being jealous of the wonderful beauty she 


ii4 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

beheld, drew Sunev to her and kissed her on 
her brow 

You will always be the most beautiful 
woman in the land,” she said. “Be you old 
or young, none shall compare with you. 

“As for your daughter, Witch Zitna, you 
will never see her again, for a mother who 
would treat the daughter of another as you 
have done this beautiful girl is not the sort to 
have a daughter. I will claim your daughter 
as well as Sunev for my godchild.” 

Sunev did not know how they reached the 
door of her parents’ home, but she stood there 
a short time after, and with trembling hands 
opened the door. 

Oh, how happy her father and mother were 
to have her again! The joy of seeing her safe 
made them forget the time, and it was the 
trumpeting of the Prince of Esor’s messengers 
that told them the day was far gone. 

The messengers knocked at the door, and 
when Sunev opened it they knew they had 
found the wife of their Prince. 

Sunev’s father and mother were overcome 
with sorrow when the messengers told their 
errand. They thought they had found their 
child, only to lose her again, but the messen- 


SUNEV 


115 

gers told them they might go along to the 
palace. So they all set out. 

When the Prince of Esor saw the beauty of 
Sunev he knew she was the one woman in the 
world for him, and without delay he ordered 
the wedding feast to be prepared. 

A wonderful gown of white and gold was 
brought from the royal clothes-room, and a 
crown of pearls and diamonds was placed upon 
her beautiful golden hair, and upon her dainty 
feet golden slippers and silk stockings. 

Her father and mother were not forgotten 
by the Prince, either. They were dressed in 
clothes they had never even dreamed of and 
given a palace near where Sunev and Prince 
Esor were to live. 

But what had become of the beautiful witch 
child all this time, for, of course, she was not 
to blame for the bad deed of Witch Zitna and 
should not be made to suffer? 

She was safe and happy, you may be sure, 
for she was surrounded by every comfort and 
luxury in another part of the palace, and she 
did not wish to become the wife of the Prince. 

Instead, she loved one of the friends of the 
Prince, a noble lord who had fallen in love 
with her, but did not dare speak his love be- 


n6 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


cause he knew the Prince might choose her 
for his bride. 

But when this noble lord heard a wife had 
been found for his Prince and it was not the 
beautiful girl he loved, he told the witch child 
of his love and they were married the very 
night that the Prince and Sunev were married. 

And it turned out that the witch child was 
not a witch child at all, but had been stolen 
when a baby from a stork who was carrying 
her through the forest to the home of a noble- 
man, for the goddess Venus, true to her prom- 
ise, took both of the beautiful girls for her god- 
children and had the fairies see that they were 
both made happy. 

The witch child was given a pretty name, 
but her husband best loved to call her the 
Queen of Night, because of her wonderful 
dark beauty. 

Sunev was the Princess of Esor, of course, 
but the Prince called her Princess Rose, and 
if you will spell Esor backward you will learn 
why. 



CILLA AND THE DWARF 
NCE upon a time there lived a king who 



had a very beautiful daughter, and her 
suitors came from far and near. 

Among them was a dwarf with a huge head 
and a very long nose. Of course, no one ex- 
pected the Princess to marry the ugly creature, 
but the dwarf did, and when the Princess 
refused he flew into a rage and said he would 
have her in spite of all she said. 

At last the Princess gave her hand to a 
prince, but the night the wedding was to take 
place the Princess was nowhere to be found. 
They hunted high and low all over the palace, 
but no trace could they find of her; even her 
wedding-dress disappeared, too. The Prince 
was in despair and wrung his hands and cried 

9 


n8 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


out he would give to any one who would find 
the Princess half of his fortune. 

The King also said he would give half of 
his kingdom to the one who would bring back 
the lost Princess. 

Now, there was among the servants a little 
kitchen-maid named Cilia, who loved the 
Princess because she always spoke kindly to 
her, and when she knew her mistress was lost 
she resolved to find her at any cost. 

So one night when all the people in the 
palace were sound asleep Cilia stole out and 
went to a witch who lived in the woods and 
asked her to help her to find the Princess. 

“I can only help you a little,” said the 
witch, “as she is in the power of one who is 
more powerful than I am, but this much I can 
do : Here is a bean that will do magic work if 
used in the right way; whether it will help 
you to find your Princess I cannot tell. The 
dwarf has carried her off, and where he is I 
do not know.” 

Cilia said she would take the bean. She 
thanked the witch and started off through the 
woods to look for the dwarf, for she was sure 
he must live in a cave. 

For days she wandered, until she was in the 


CILLA AND THE DWARF 


119 

deep forest, and at last she came to a high 
rock over which she could not climb. 

Cilia sat down and leaned against the rock 
to rest, when, to her surprise, she heard the 
sound of weeping. She looked all around, but 
could see no opening except a big crack in one 
side, and this was too small for her to get 
through. 

She was just about to call out and ask who 
was inside weeping when she heard some one 
coming through the bushes. 

Cilia ran behind the rock and watched, and 
in a minute the dwarf came bounding out of 
the bush and briers. 

He carried in his hand an iron bar, and 
with this he opened the crack in the rock, 
which was a door, and entered the rock, leav- 
ing the door open behind him. 

Cilia was a very brave girl or she would 
have stayed where she was, but no sooner 
had the dwarf disappeared than she ran in 
after him. 

He was standing beside a poor, half- 
starved-looking little white rabbit, and Cilia 
heard him say, “Do you consent or will you 
starve?” 

The little white rabbit only blinked and 


i2o SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


turned away, and then Cilia saw something 
that made her start, for hanging on a ragged 
bit of rock was the wedding-dress the Prin- 
cess was to have worn the night she disap- 
peared. 

Cilia did not wait to see more. She dashed 
toward the dwarf and grabbed him by his long 
nose, and, giving it a hard twist, she cried out: 
“Where is my mistress, you wretch? Where 
is she, I say?” 

A very strange thing happened when Cilia 
gave the long nose a twist ; the dwarf howled 
like the sound of thunder, and instead of the 
dwarf there stood before Cilia a huge toad 
that hopped away so fast she could not see 
where it disappeared. 

“You poor half-starved little rabbit,” said 
Cilia. “I wish I had something to give you 
to eat, but I must hunt for my mistress first, 
for I know she must be here.” 

Then Cilia thought of the bean. “I’ll give 
you this,” she said to the rabbit. “I am sure 
I shall have no use for it.” 

When the rabbit swallowed the bean Cilia’s 
eyes popped wide open, for there stood her 
mistress, safe and sound. 

“Oh, Cilia, you have saved me! How ever 


CILLA AND THE DWARF 


121 


did you think of twisting his nose?” asked the 
Princess. 

“Because it looked as if it were made to be 
twisted,” said Cilia, “but how did you know 
the bean would change you back to your own 
form?” 

“I didn't, but I was hungry; that dreadful 
dwarf was trying to make me say I would 
marry him by starving me. Some power- 
ful witch had given him the form of a dwarf, 
and if he could get a princess to marry him 
she would change him into a man,” said the 
Princess. 

“Was he a toad at 'first?” asked Cilia. 

“Yes, it seems he was a toad in the cave 
of a powerful witch, and for something he did 
for her she made him a dwarf ; then he wanted 
to become a man, and the witch told him if 
he would marry a princess and take her into 
the palace to live she would grant his wish. 

* 1 He told me this before he had me changed 
into a rabbit, for he first carried me off to the 
cave of this witch, who lives somewhere in 
this forest, and I think we better hurry away 
before the toad gets to her and tells her I have 
escaped.” 

It took a long time to get out of the forest, 


i22 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


but Cilia and the Princess found the way and 
the Prince and the King told Cilia she should 
have the promised reward. 

"Now, what would I do with all that gold 
and half of a kingdom?” asked Cilia. "All 
I ask is to have a nice little cottage and a cow 
near by the palace where I can see my mistress 
every day.” 

Of course Cilia’s wish was granted, and 
there she lived and was happy, for she married 
the King’s gardener and became the mother 
of many boys and girls who never tired of 
hearing how their mother rescued the Prin- 
cess from the bad dwarf. 



GRETA AND THE BLACK CAT 
NE day a woodsman named Peter was 



chopping down a tree when he saw swing- 
ing from one of the branches a bundle. Drop- 
ping his ax, he climbed up, and to his surprise, 
when he opened the bundle, he found in it a 
baby girl asleep. Peter hurried home with 
the baby to his wife. 4 1 Look, Martha, ’ ’ he said. 
“I have found a baby girl to be a sister to 
our son Robert. We will name her Greta and 
they shall grow up as brother and sister.” 

But Martha did not want the baby. “We 
have three mouths to feed now,” she grumbled. 
“Why should we care for a child we know 
nothing of?” 

But Peter would not hear of putting the 
child out-of-doors and so Greta lived with 
Peter and Martha and grew up with Robert. 



124 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

Poor little Greta had anything but a happy 
life, for Martha did not treat her kindly 
only when Peter was in sight, and that was 
seldom. 

Robert, seeing that his mother did not treat 
Greta well, began to order her to wait upon 
him as soon as he was old enough and treated 
her as a servant. 

Greta had to weed the garden and bring in 
the water and the wood. She had to wash 
the dishes and make the beds and do all the 
work excepting when Peter was at home. 

One day when Peter was going to the woods 
he told Robert to chop a pile of wood in the 
yard and have it finished by the time he came 
home. 

When Peter was out of sight Robert told 
Greta to chop the wood. “That is what you 
are here for — to do the work,” said Robert. 
“You would have been eaten up by the bears 
if we had not taken you in. Now go to work 
and chop that wood.” 

Greta began to cry and said she could not 
handle the ax; she was too small. But Martha 
boxed her ears and told her she should not 
have any dinner if she did not do as Robert 
told her. 


GRETA AND THE BLACK CAT 


125 


Greta went to the woodpile and picked up 
the ax, but it was no use. She could not chop 
the wood. And fearing a beating if she did 
not do it, Greta ran away. On and on she ran 
until she came to a turn in the road which led 
into a forest. Here she decided to stop for 
the night, and she was just lying down by a 
rock when she heard a pitiful “me-ow.” 

Looking in the bushes close by, Greta saw a 
big black cat holding up one paw as though it 
was hurt. “Poor pussy!” said Greta, taking 
the cat in her arms. “You look as unhappy as 
I feel. Let me bind up your paw.” 

Greta tore off a piece of her dress and 
bound up the cat's paw, and then, to her sur- 
prise, the black cat spoke to her. 

“ Come with me and I will show you where 
to sleep. You will have to carry me, for my 
paw is very painful,” said the cat. 

Greta picked up the cat, too surprised to 
be frightened, and went through the woods as 
the cat directed her. 

When they reached a big rock with an open- 
ing in it the cat said : “ Here is my home. Take 
me in and you will find a place to sleep and 
food as well.” 

Creeping in on her hands and knees with 


126 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


the cat under her arm, Greta found herself 
in a big room with a table in the center and 
on it plenty of food. 

In one comer of the room was a bed and on 
this Greta saw a queer-looking old woman 
with a hooked nose. 

She was asleep and did not notice them until 
the cat said, “Eat your supper.” 

Up jumped the queer-looking old woman 
when she heard this, for she was the witch. 

“You, and a mortal with you, ’ 9 she screamed , 
as she reached for her crooked stick. 

Greta ran to the door, for she thought the 
old witch was about to strike her; but the 
black cat, who was sitting on the floor near 
by where Greta had put it, said: “Don’t you 
dare touch this girl; she has saved my life, 
and from this hour you are in my power, for 
a mortal has held me in her arms. 

“If you would live call the good fairy that 
has been looking for me all these years. I 
shall find her, anyway, but it will save time if 
you use your magic power, and you will regret 
it if you do not obey me.” 

When the old witch heard this she began to 
tremble and hobbled to the door of the cave 
and tapped it three times with her crooked stick. 


GRETA AND THE BLACK CAT 


127 


The rock opened so she could walk out, and 
Greta followed to see what she did, for she 
was no longer afraid ; she knew the black cat 
would protect her. 

The old witch gave a peculiar cry when she 
was outside, and Greta saw the next instant 
a tiny creature dressed in pink gauze, holding 
a wand of gold in one little hand, standing on 
a bush beside the old witch. 

“Here I am, Witch Terrible,” said the fairy. 
“What can I do for you? You must be in 
great danger or you would not have called for 
one of us.” 

The cat when it heard the fairy speak ran 
out of the cave, limping, and lay down in front 
of the fairy. “Help me, my good fairy,” said 
the black cat. “I am the Prince for whom you 
have looked so long. The old witch changed 
me into a black cat and took away my power 
to speak until I was held in the arms of a 
mortal. 

“I know her secret, and, though she dared 
not kill me, she wanted me to die, so she turned 
me into the forest to starve, and if it had not 
been for this girl, good fairy, the old witch 
would have had her wish granted. 

“When she changed me into a black cat 


128 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


she said I should never speak until a mortal 
held me, and that I could not regain my own 
shape until a fairy changed me, but something 
has happened since then, and to save herself 
she obeyed me and called you, for I know her 
secret, and that is why I did not have to hunt 
for you, my good fairy.” 

The fairy touched the black cat with her 
wand and Greta saw in place of the big black 
cat a handsome man dressed in black velvet, 
with gold trimmings. “ Now tell me the secret 
you know about the witch,” said the fairy. 

The old witch threw up her arms and cried 
for mercy. “Remember, I called the fairy,” 
she said; “you would have hunted a long 
time if I had not. Be merciful!” 

“I shall not forget,” said the Prince. “This 
woman is only half a witch,” he said. “She 
is part mortal, and every night at twelve 
o’clock she has to become a mortal for an hour 
because she tried to change a water nymph 
into a frog. The river god, the water nymph’s 
father, called on a very powerful ogre, who 
was his friend, and the ogre was about to 
change her into a rock, but she begged so 
hard he made her half mortal and left her to 
her fate.” 


GRETA AND THE BLACK CAT 


129 


“ Which means she can never leave this 
forest,” said the fairy, “and as she does many 
of her magic deeds at night when she rides 
abroad on her broomstick she is not a very 
powerful witch.” 

“Yes, that is it,” said the Prince, “and she 
does not want it known among the fairies or 
the goblins or any of the magic-power folks. 
That is the mercy for which she begs. 

“I hope you will keep her secret, good fairy, 
for she saved me so much time and trouble 
in calling you.” 

“I will keep her secret from all but the 
fairies, but one of the fairy family will come 
here every night to make sure no mortal has 
been harmed by her, for some one might stray 
in here just as this girl did and be changed into 
some other form.” 

‘ ‘ I have one more favor to ask of you, good 
fairy,” said the Prince. “I wish to make this 
girl my wife if she will marry me, and I would 
like to have the proper clothes for a princess, 
so that I may take her to my palace at once.” 

“What do you say, my dear?” asked the 
fairy. “Will you marry the Prince?” 

Greta felt she must be dreaming, but she 
was sure she would love the handsome Prince 


i 3 o SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

if she were awake, so she told the fairy she 
would, and the next instant her ragged clothes 
dropped from her and she stood before the 
Prince in a beautiful green velvet riding-habit, 
with a long feather in her hat, looking every 
inch a princess. 

That night a great feast was held at the 
palace of the Prince in honor of his return and 
to celebrate their wedding, and the very next 
day Greta and the Prince rode to the home 
where she had once lived to give Peter a bag 
of gold. 

“He was the only person who ever treated 
me kindly until I met you,” Greta told the 
Prince, “and I shall never forget him.” 

Greta was not recognized by Martha or her 
son Robert, for they little thought the beau- 
tiful Princess was the poor girl that had once 
been their slave. But Peter, who had loved 
her, looked after the coach as it rolled away. 
“It looked a little like her,” he said, “but, of 
course, it could not be.” Many gifts did Greta 
and the Prince send to Peter, and in his old 
age he was given a comfortable house and 
plenty to eat, and, though Martha and Robert 
shared his good fortune, they never knew 
who sent it. 


GRETA AND THE BLACK CAT 131 

The Prince told Peter who the Princess 
really was one day, because the poor old man 
had never ceased to sorrow because Greta 
could not be found, but not a word did he 
tell of this to Robert or Martha, but kept 
his secret all to himself as long as he lived. 



THE KNIGHT OF THE BRIGHT STAR 

/^NCE upon a time there lived a prince 
named Lorenzo. Although he was a 
prince, he was quite poor and lived with his 
mother and one servant in a mountain far 
from the land of his birth. 

His father, the King, had been killed in a 
battle with another king, who took away the 
wealth and the castles of the defeated King, 
leaving Prince Lorenzo and his mother nothing 
of their former grandeur. 

Prince Lorenzo grew up with a longing for 
vengeance in his heart, and often at night his 
mother would find him gazing in the direction 
of his old home as he stood alone under the 
stars. 

“Son,” said the Queen-mother one night, 


THE KNIGHT OF THE BRIGHT STAR 133 

“why do you gaze so Intently into the dis- 
tance? Why are you so sad?” 

“There is bitterness in my heart for my 
father’s enemy who has robbed me of all the 
happiness and pleasure in the great world out- 
side,” replied the Prince. 

“Let me go, mother, and seek my fortune, 
and I may be able to avenge the wrongs done 
to you and me. 

“Vengeance does not belong to us, my son,” 
said the Queen-mother. “You must not take 
upon yourself that which is not your right. 

“Go out in the world and taste its pleasures, 
but keep your Star of Hope as bright as those 
shining in the heavens over your head if you 
wish for happiness.” 

The next morning Prince Lorenzo started 
on his journey. He was dressed in a shining 
suit of mail and sat upon a white horse with 
trappings of silver. In the center of his helmet 
was a little silver star which his mother gave 
him with these words: 

“My son, may your armor protect you 
from all evil and may this star be your guide. 
It is enchanted, for it was given to me by a 
fairy when I was Queen and your father King. 
“If ever it grows dim look into your own 


10 


i34 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

heart to find the cause, and, finding it, cast it 
from you if you wish for happiness.” 

Prince Lorenzo promised to look to the 
brightness of the little star and rode away to 
seek his happiness. 

After several days he came to a big city, 
the City of Pleasure it was called, and those 
who lived there told him his armor was much 
too heavy for one so young to wear. 

“Cast it aside,” they told the Prince, “and 
we will show you the joys of living.” 

So the Prince listened and followed the 
people in the City of Pleasure to a beautiful 
palace where merriment reigned, and laid 
aside his armor for a lighter garb. One day 
Prince Lorenzo looked from the Palace of 
Merriment and saw all around the castle men, 
women, and children working, and on their 
faces the look of misery. 

“Who are these creatures?” he asked his 
gay companions. 

“ Those are the toilers who make the money 
for us to spend,” was the reply. “Look at us 
and forget these creatures and be merry.” 

But the Prince could no more be merry; he 
remembered his Star of Hope his mother had 
given him and hurried to find it. 


THE KNIGHT OF THE BRIGHT STAR 135 

Instead of the shining star he had left 
he found it dim and dull, and then he re- 
membered his mother’s words, “Look into 
your own heart to find the cause.” His 
love of wealth and pleasure had driven out 
all thoughts of others, and he had cared not 
how he gained these things, so long as he 
had them. 

“My selfishness has dimmed my Star of 
Hope,” said the Prince; “I must leave the 
City of Pleasure and the Palace of Merriment, 
for this is not happiness.” 

He buckled on the cast-off armor and rode 
away. As he rode past the toilers he threw 
among them all the gold he had gained while 
in the City of Pleasure. 

Far away from the city he rode, and found 
himself in the midst of sickness and suffering. 

Dismounting, the Prince ministered to the 
sufferers’ needs and forgot all else until he 
fell asleep from exhaustion. 

When he awoke his horse stood beside him, 
and in the moonlight the little star shone 
brightly from its place in his helmet on the 
ground at his side. Prince Lorenzo jumped to 
his feet and placed the helmet on his head. He 
had tasted the joy of good deeds. He no 


i 3 6 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

longer looked for pleasure in selfishness, and 
the bitterness of vengeance had gone from 
his heart. 

Back to his mother he rode with the little 
star shining. “You have won, my son!” she 
cried as she met him. “All my love for you 
could not teach you how to gain real happi- 
ness; selfish pleasure and love of vengeance 
dull our Star of Hope, but only those who 
have learned the lesson for themselves can 
know this.” 

Prince Lorenzo was surprised one morning 
to see coming up the mountain, where he and 
his mother lived, an army of brightly dressed 
soldiers. When they came nearer he saw they 
were the soldiers that once had served his 
father, the King. 

“The King who wronged you is dead,” they 
told Prince Lorenzo, “and before he died he 
made us promise to find you and the Queen 
and bring you back to your kingdom, which 
he wrongfully took from you.” 

Of course Prince Lorenzo and his mother 
rejoiced to know that once more they would 
live in their former home, and lost no time in 
starting out on the journey. 

“Your Star of Hope has brought you 


THE KNIGHT OF THE BRIGHT STAR 137 

through tribulations into peace and happi- 
ness,” said his mother, “and all wrongs are 
righted, but if it had become dulled by selfish- 
ness and vengeance, my son, we still might 
be in the darkness of despair.” 



THE DOLPHIN’S BRIDE 

O NE day there came through the woods 
that bordered on a big ocean a poor little 
beggar girl named Nitta. 

Nitta was crying; she was hungry and she 
did not know where to go, for her aunt, who 
had a daughter of her own, did not want to 
support Nitta and had turned her out-of- 
doors that very day. 

“I am too poor to support you,” said the 
hard-hearted aunt. “You must take care of 
yourself.” 

Nitta’s father and mother were dead and 
there seemed to be no place for her but the 
woods, so she wandered along until she came 
to the ocean, and there she sat down to cry 
out her grief. 


THE DOLPHIN’S BRIDE 


139 


While she was crying a big dolphin poked 
his head out of the water. “What are you 
crying for, little girl?” he asked. 

Nitta was so surprised to hear the dolphin 
speak that she stopped crying at once. “I 
am crying because I have no home,” she 
replied. 

“I will give you a home if you will come 
with me,” said the dolphin. “I need some 
one to take care of my house.” 

“But I cannot live in the water; I should 
drown,” said Nitta. 

1 1 1 would not ask you to come if you would 
drown,” answered the dolphin. “But you 
must decide for yourself whether you could 
keep house for a fish. There are no children 
to play with at the bottom of the ocean.” 

“I shall starve if I stay on land, and I may 
find a good home,” thought Nitta as the dol- 
phin waited for his answer. 

“I’ll go with you,” she said. 

“Then jump on my back,” said the dolphin, 
“and close your eyes; there is nothing to 
fear. I promise you that.” 

Nitta jumped on his back and closed her 
eyes. Over the waves they went, and then 
suddenly Nitta felt the dolphin plunge under 


i 4 o SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

the water, and down, down they went, and 
then next thing she knew the dolphin stopped 
and said, “Here we are.” 

Nitta opened her eyes, and instead of being 
in the water, as she thought, she was in a 
beautiful garden in front of a beautiful house. 
Up the steps the dolphin flopped, for, of course, 
he could not walk, having no feet, and Nitta 
followed him. 

He led her into a big hall hung with beauti- 
ful pictures and soft carpets upon the floor 
upon which Nitta was almost afraid to step. 

Nitta almost forgot her queer companion, 
she was so overcome with all the grandeur she 
beheld. 

On both sides of the long hall were many 
rooms, one of gold, one of silver, one of 
marble, and the dolphin told Nitta she was 
to choose which room she would care to have 
for her own. 

“But you said I was to keep your house,” 
said Nitta; “a servant cannot live in one of 
these beautiful rooms.” 

“I did not say I wanted you to be a ser- 
vant,” said the dolphin. “I want some one 
to live here and care for the house, but not 
to do the work,” 


THE DOLPHIN’S BRIDE 


141 

Nitta chose a beautiful room hung in blue 
silk, with chairs of blue damask and beautiful 
rosewood frames. 

The ceiling was a darker blue, and all over it 
were dotted diamonds that twinkled like stars. 

The floor was covered with a blue velvet 
carpet, soft and thick, and over it were scat- 
tered big pink roses which looked as if they 
would crush when stepped upon, they seemed 
so natural. 

There was a piano of rosewood at one end 
of the room, and upon this Nitta was surprised 
to see the dolphin jump and with its fins begin 
to play. Music such as Nitta never heard 
came from the keys, and so enchanted was she 
that when the dolphin stopped playing Nitta 
ran to him and put her hand upon his head. 

“You poor fish/’ she said, “it is too bad 
you are not a man. I wish I were a fairy and 
could change you into a prince. This place is 
far too beautiful for a fish to live in, and be- 
sides, you play such wonderful music. How 
is it possible?” 

“There is only one way you can help me, 
and since you wished to be a fairy and change 
me into a prince,” said the dolphin, “I will 
see if you will keep your word. 


142 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

“Look behind the door and bring the sword 
you will find there, and I will tell you the only 
way I can be freed from the spell of a witch 
who hates me.” 

From behind the door Nitta brought the 
sword. She found it had a beautiful handle 
of gold and set with diamonds and pearls, but 
the blade looked sharp and pointed and Nitta 
trembled as she held it. 

“Now if you really are sorry for me,” said 
the dolphin, “and wish to make me a prince, 
strike off my head.” 

Nitta dropped the sword at the very thought 
of anything so terrible. “I cannot do that,” 
she said. “You have been too kind to me.” 

“That is the only way you can repay me,” 
said the dolphin, with a sigh. “I see you did 
not mean what you said about wishing to be 
a fairy.” 

“Oh yes, I do, indeed I do!” said Nitta. 
“I do not want to kill you, but I will put you 
out of misery if that is what you want.” 

She picked up the sword and swung it over 
her head; then she looked at the dolphin, 
closed her eyes, and brought down the sword. 

As it fell Nitta felt herself slipping away, it 
seemed to her into the bottom of the ocean. 


THE DOLPHIN’S BRIDE 


143 


When she opened her eyes she saw a very 
handsome man bending over her. “You are 
a brave girl/’ he said. “You have saved me 
from a terrible fate.’’ 

“Where is the good dolphin?” asked Nitta. 
“Oh, I will never forgive myself for killing 
him!” 

“He is gone forever. I was the poor dol- 
phin,” said the handsome man at her side. 
“You broke the spell that held me, for the 
old witch who changed me into the dolphin 
said I must remain one until a pretty woman 
should strike off my head.” 

“But why should a witch change you into 
a fish?” asked Nitta. 

“Because I would not marry her daughter 
and make her a princess,” replied the hand- 
some man. “You see, I am a prince and I was 
waiting for the girl I could love to appear 
before I would take my princess. 

“And now I have found her. Will you be- 
come my princess?” 

Nitta was already in love with the handsome 
man who had fallen in love with her, and so 
they were married that very day in the won- 
derful castle of beautiful rooms and lived 
happily ever after. 



PRINCESS DIDO AND THE PRINCE 
OF THE ROSES 


E TTLE Princess Dido ran away from her 
attendants every time she could, and one 
day when she was walking in the forest with 
her servants she hid behind a tree while they 
were talking, and before they had missed her 
she ran down another path and was out of 
their sight. 

When Princess Dido found herself alone she 
began to look about to see if she could find 
any flowers, for she was very fond of flowers 
and was never allowed to pick them herself; 
her servants did that for her. 

“I can pick them myself now/’ she said, 
laughing to herself to think she had escaped 


PRINCESS DIDO AND PRINCE OF ROSES 145 

from the servants, and she began picking all 
the wild flowers she could find, walking along 
all the time and going farther into the forest. 

When it was sunset the Princess Dido 
found herself in the thick of the trees and 
bushes, and she began to wonder why her 
attendants did not find her and take her home ; 
but the sun set and the stars came out and 
still no one came, and Princess Dido felt tired 
and lay down among the leaves and mosses 
and went to sleep. 

When she awoke the moon was shining, and 
although she was in the forest alone she was 
not afraid, for she did not think any one 
would harm a princess, so she rolled over on 
her soft bed, thinking she would go to sleep 
again, when something cold touched her cheek. 

Princess Dido opened her eyes very wide 
then and sat up, and on a bush beside her she 
saw a very small gold key hanging by a thread 
which swung back and forth and half touched 
her face. 

“I wonder what this cunning little key can 
fit,” said the Princess. ‘‘I do wish I knew! 
I am sure I should find something nice. I 
believe I will look about. I am not a bit 
sleepy, and the moon is as bright as day.” 


i 4 6 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

Princess Dido hunted everywhere among the 
bushes and rocks, and nothing could she find, 
when, just as she had decided to go to sleep 
again, she saw something shining on a tree, 
and there was a tiny keyhole that the key 
just fitted. 

She put the key in the lock and the tree 
opened like a door, and Princess Dido stepped 
inside and closed the door after her. 

She walked along a road which seemed to 
be just behind the tree, but when she looked 
about she was not in the forest at all, but in 
a beautiful country filled with flowers and 
tall trees, and in the distance she saw a beau- 
tiful castle. 

When Princess Dido came to the castle she 
saw fountains and more beautiful flowers 
growing around, and there were birds of all 
kinds singing in the trees. . 

“I suppose I must go to the door of the 
castle and let them know who I am,” thought 
the Princess. “A princess ought to do that, 
I know, but I would much rather stay in this 
beautiful garden and hear the b ; rds sing and 
look at the flowers.” 

When the Princess knocked at the door no 
one answered, and after waiting a short time 


PRINCESS DIDO AND PRINCE OF ROSES 147 

the Princess opened the door and stepped 
inside. All was still and she sat down and 
waited. 

“I expect everybody is at breakfast,” 
thought the Princess. “I wish I had some- 
thing to eat. I didn’t have any supper, and I 
have not had my breakfast, either. 

“ Yes, I am h angry and want my breakfast,” 
said Princess Dido, and, though she did not 
know it, she had spoken right out loud, and 
as she did so a table appeared beside her with 
her breakfast on it and a bouquet of beautiful 
pink roses. 

“I wonder where this came from. I didn’t 
see or hear any one,” said the Princess. 

But she did not wonder about it; she was 
too hungry. When she had finished she walked 
along the hall, for, being a princess, she was in 
the habit of going where she liked, and as she 
saw no one she did the same here. 

But there was no room opening out of the 
hall she was in, so the Princess went up the 
stairs, and here again she found herself in a 
large hall, but this was so beautiful she looked 
about her in wonder, for it was a much more 
beautiful place than her own castle. The floor 
was of opals and the walls were the same; the 


i 4 8 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

sunlight shining through the windows made 
the most wonderful colors wherever it fell, and 
all around the place were white roses, making 
the air sweet with their fragrance. 

There was another flight of stairs, and up 
these the Princess went. The stairs were of 
silver, and on the next floor the Princess found 
herself in a hall of crystal with roses all around ; 
beautiful pink roses such as she had never 
before beheld. 

“Oh, how I wish I could pick them! ,, said 
the Princess as she went from bush to bush, 
and to her surprise the roses nodded as if to 
tell her she could if she liked. 

Princess Dido broke one from its stem, and 
then another, and as the roses still nodded 
she picked more until her arms were full. 

But there was another flight of stairs, and 
these were of gold. So the Princess walked 
up these and found herself in another beautiful 
room, which was blue, the color of sapphires, 
and around this room grew red roses. 

But there was still another flight of stairs, 
and the Princess did not stop long here, with 
her arms filled with the pink roses. She went 
up the last flight and found herself in a hall 
filled with red, pink, and white roses, but the 


PRINCESS DIDO AND PRINCE OF ROSES 149 

walls were hung with soft gray silk and the 
floor covered with velvet of the same color. 

“Oh, how beautiful! I wish I could live 
here among the roses,” she said. 

“You can, my Princess of the Roses,” said 
a voice, and from behind a curtain stepped a 
handsome prince, dressed in a suit of gray 
velvet, with trimmings of silver and pink. 

He took from his head a hat with a long 
plume of pink and bowed low before the Prin- 
cess Dido, who had dropped her roses and 
stood blushing as pink as the roses she had 
dropped. 

“ This is my castle, the Castle of the Roses,” 
explained the Prince, “and I vowed I would 
never marry until I found a princess who 
loved my roses as well as me, and you have 
proved you do by coming into all of my rose- 
garden. Others have been here, but when 
they found only roses in each room they never 
came to this floor. 

“Behind these curtains is my palace. These 
halls of roses are but a part of my private 
rooms. Will you stay, Princess, or shall I call 
the fairies to take you back to your own 
castle?” asked the Prince. 

“You may call the fairies to take the news 

11 


1 5 o SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

to my people that I will live in the Castle of 
Roses, with the Prince of Roses,” said Princess 
Dido. 

“But who hung the little gold key on the 
bush?” she asked the Prince. 

“Oh! I asked the fairies to help me find a 
wife,” said the Prince. “They hung it there. 
You see, we shall live in an enchanted castle, 
as well as in the Castle of Roses, so there is 
nothing for us but happiness.” 



CATVILLE GOSSIP 


M R. TOMMY KAT was in love with 
. Tabby Gray — -at least so all the gos- 
sips in Catville say, for Tabby was as grace- 
ful as a little kit can be. Said Tommy, when 
he saw her, “She’s just the wife for me.” 

But Tabby Gray was fickle, as sometimes 
kittens are; so she giggled and told Tommy 
he would have to ask her pa. For there was 
big white Tom Cat, with coat as smooth as 
silk, who often took her walking and treated 
her to milk. He had told her he would give her 
a ribbon bright of red, if she would only 
promise no other cat to wed. 

Then there was Tommy Mouser, who by 
all was called a sport. He had told her that 
he loved her, and once for her had fought. 
And there was Tommy Black, the dandy 


152 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

of the town, who was called by all who watched 
him the best dancer to be found. 

He often danced with Tabby Gray, and 
frightened all the rest away; for when he 
danced they all stood by and looked on him 
with jealous eye. 

And Tiger Tom, another swain, who always 
said he felt a pain around his heart when any 
other danced with her except her brother. 

An admirer, too, was Tommy Buff; he said 
and vowed it was no bluff when he declared 
he loved Miss Gray and in his heart she held 
full sway. 

And there was Tommy Black-and- White, 
who said he sat up many a night to serenade 
Miss Tabby Gray on the back-yard fence till 
break of day. 

And Tommy, who was nicknamed Slim, said 
she was the only girl for him and that his eyes 
had turned to green because another cat was 
seen to walk with Tabby down the road. Since 
that his heart was like a load. 

And so, you see, Miss Tabby Gray needed 
time these things to weigh, and that was why 
she told Tom Kat her pa would have to answer 
that question he had asked that night on the 
back-yard fence in the bright moonlight. 


CATVILLE GOSSIP 


i53 


Said Tommy Kat as he looked at a star: “ I 
don’t want to marry your pa. Now why do 
you keep me here a-guessing when we might 
go round and get pa’s blessing?” 

Miss Tabby stretched and heaved a sigh, 
then on Tommy Kat she cast her eye. He was 
handsomer, far, than all the rest, and she felt 
quite sure she loved him best. But, like all 
others of her kind, she pretended to make up 
her mind. 

But Tommy Kat was a hasty fellow. He 
knew present time was always mellow; so he 
told Miss Tabby ’twas getting late, and 
whisked her over the back-yard gate. And 
before she knew where she was at they stood 
at the door of Minister Cat. 

In a minute more they came out married, 
for Minister Cat he never tarried. He married 
off couples quick as scat, and for his fee he 
took a rat. 

The reception they held was a howling 
success, as all who came to it had to confess. 
And all the way through Catville Town 
bottles and shoes were strewn up and down. 
And when Old Sun Man o’er the hill did peep 
every kit in the town was fast asleep. 



HOW THE ELEPHANT GOT HIS 
TRUNK 



NE night in the Zoo when the keepers 


were asleep the other animals were awak- 
ened by the chattering in the monkey cage. 

“I have heard that Mr. Lion can be made 
very tame,” said Jocko, “and while I doubt 
very much if he really can bite, his growl is 
most unpleasant to hear.” 

“Oh, well, it may be worse than his bite,” 
said Tito. “Those who make the most noise 
are not always to be feared, I have been told. 

“There is Hippo; he is much bigger than 
Mr. Lion, and he doesn’t make as much noise 
all the time as Mr. Lion.” 

“ Oh, dear me, but what a big mouth Hippo 
has!’/ laughed Tito. “I wonder how he hap- 
pened to get such a big one. He must have 


HOW THE ELEPHANT GOT HIS TRUNK 155 

been the first one there when they gave out 
mouths.” 

“I have heard something about almost 
every animal here,” said Jocko. “Want to 
hear it?” 

“Yes, tell me,” said Tito, moving close to 
Jocko. “Where did Mr. Lion get his long hair?” 

“ Oh dear! don’t you know?” laughed Jocko, 
“Mrs. Lion pulled it so much it made it long. 
She hasn’t any, you see. Oh dear, yes, Mr. 
Lion is a henpecked husband if ever there was 
one.” 

“You don’t tell me so,” said Tito. “What 
about Hippo? How did it happen he is so 
big and clumsy?” 

“Oh, don’t you know?” said Jacko. “When 
the animals were being made there was a lot 
of each animal left and it was all stirred to- 
gether, and that made Hippo. They made his 
body first arid then they did not have enough 
to give him a long tail or fill in his mouth. 
That is the reason it is so large.” 

“Ho, ho, ho!” laughed Tito, and Jocko 
laughed, too, until they nearly fell off the 
place where they were sitting. 

“Where did old Reynard get his bushy tail, 
Jocko?” 


156 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

“Oh, don’t you know that either?” replied 
Jocko. ‘ ‘ He was caught trying to steal chickens 
by the farmer’s wife, and she threw the brush 
she was using at him with such force that it 
struck him handle first, and there it stuck 
right on his back, and he never could be rid 
of it.” 

“Ho, ho, ho!” laughed Tito. “And where 
did the giraffe get his long neck?” 

“Oh, that is easy,” said Jocko. “He was 
so big-feeling and so haughty he would not 
look at the other animals, and it stretched his 
neck until now he can’t see the ground, so I 
have been told. I don’t know, of course.” 

“He has a very little head, anyway,” said 
Tito. 

“There is very little in it, my dear Tito,” 
said Jocko. And then they both laughed again. 

One by one 'the animals had awakened, but, 
hearing what was being said, they each hoped 
to hear something about the other that would 
offset the fun Jocko was making of them, so 
they kept still. 

“Where did the elephant get his trunk? 
That is what I should most like to hear about,” 
said Tito. 

“Well, that is a long story,” said Jocko, “ It 


HOW THE ELEPHANT GOT HIS TRUNK 157 

seems that it really was only a nose to begin 
with, and not much of a nose at that, so I have 
heard it said, but because he was so big he 
thought he was the boss of the jungle, where he 
lived, and he went about poking his nose into 
every place he could find to see what was going 
on. They used to call him Old Nosey, I have 
been told, and he had such big ears that what 
he did not see he heard, so every one disliked 
him, but it took Old Man Crocodile, to cure 
him of his bad habit.” 

“What did he do to Mr. Elephant?” asked 
Tito, excitedly. 

“I’ll tell you,” said Jocko. “One day Mr. 
Elephant was walking by the water when he 
saw something queer-looking sticking out of 
the water. 

“Mr. Elephant had to know what it was, 
so he poked it with his nose, and, zip ! it had 
him right by the nose, and held him, too. 

“My, how he did yell, I was told, but Old 
Man Crocodile would not let go. He held 
right on tight. 

“Mr. Elephant pulled and cried, ‘Let go!' 
and the harder he pulled the harder Old Man 
Crocodile pulled, until Mr. Elephant had that 
nose you see on him now called a trunk. 


1 5 8 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

“ By and by Old Man Crocodile had to catch 
his breath, and he let go, and down sat Mr. 
Elephant on the ground with a bang. 

“Old Man Crocodile began to cry and say 
how sorry he was that he had grabbled Mr. 
Elephant — that he had no idea he was hurting 
a friend. He thought it was a hunter, and 
would Mr. Elephant please forgive him this 
once! — he would never do it again.’' 

“Is there where Old Man Crocodile got his 
tears?’’ asked Tito. 

“That is how he began to cry,” said Jocko. 

“Ho, ho, ho!” they both laughed, and then 
a terrible roar and trumpeting and all sorts 
of cries went up from the animals, for Mr. 
Elephant could not keep quiet when he heard 
what Jocko said about his trunk. 

When Mr. Elephant began to trumpet Mr. 
Lion began to roar, and Jocko and Tito fled 
to the back of their cage and huddled together, 
trembling with fright. 

“They can’t get us,” said Jocko. “ Let them 
talk and scream. I guess we woke them up 
talking and laughing.” 

The other animals made such a noise that 
the keepers came running to see what had 
happened, but, of course, they did not under- 


HOW THE ELEPHANT GOT HIS TRUNK 159 

stand a thing they told them about the awful 
stories Jocko had told about them, and so 
all they could do was to give them a drink of 
water or a biscuit, hoping they would be quiet. 

Far into the morning the animals scolded 
and told Jocko what they thought of him, but 
Tito and Jocko fell asleep in spite of the noise 
and Tito laughed in his dreams about the 
funny things Jocko had told him. 



WHY RABBITS HAVE SHORT TAILS 


B UNNY RABBIT was sitting in his yard 
one day, thinking very hard, when his 
grandfather came along. 

“Why are you so quiet and sober, grand- 
son?” he inquired. 

“I am wondering, grandfather,” said Bunny, 
“why we have such long ears and so short a 
tail. I should think it would be much better 
if it were just the other way about.” 

“Of course; of course,” said Grandfather 
Rabbit, bobbing his ears back and forth. “We 
all think we could have made a better rabbit 
if we had been consulted. But let me tell you 
why your tail is short and your ears are long, 
and then you will learn you are better off now 
than was your great-grandfather’s great-grand- 
father, who had a long tail and short ears.” 


WHY RABBITS HAVE SHORT TAILS 161 


It did not take Bunny Rabbit long to find a 
nice soft seat for his grandfather and to sit 
close and very still, with his ears sticking up 
to listen, for he dearly loved the stories his 
grandfather told. 

“Once upon a time,” began Grandfather 
Rabbit, just as all grandfathers begin a story — 
“a long, long time ago there lived in some 
woods a rabbit. He had a long tail and short 
ears, just as all the rabbits in those days had. 

“One day he ran over the hill to the garden 
where Mr. Man lived. He should have been 
very careful, but he wasn’t, and when he was 
crawling under the rail fence around the gar- 
den didn’t Mr. Dog see him and begin to bark 
and chase Short Ears, as he was called. 

“Short Ears was a good runner, and it was 
lucky he was or there would be an end to this 
story right here. Through the garden he ran 
under cover of the vegetable leaves, and when 
he got out he was a good bit ahead of Mr. 
Dog. 

“Over the field they ran, and under the 
stone wall went Short Ears and over it went 
Mr. Dog. Down the road they ran lickety 
split, and into his house ran Short Ears just 
as Mr. Dog came into the yard. 


162 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


“ Short Ears had no time to lose, I can tell 
you. He slammed the door, and what do you 
suppose happened ?” 

Bunny Rabbit was so interested in his grand- 
father’s story he only started; he did not an- 
swer at all. So his grandfather went on. 

“Why, Short Ears slammed that door right 
on his long tail, and there he was held fast, 
with his tail hanging outside.” 

“Oh! Oh! Oh!” cried Bunny Rabbit, feeling 
of his stubby little tail, to be sure it was safe 
behind him. 

“What did poor Short Ears do then?” he 
asked. 

“He could not do a thing, for there was 
Mr. Dog right in the yard and running straight 
for the door,” said Grandfather Rabbit. 

Bunny Rabbit sat closer to his grandfather 
and his ears grew longer as he listened. 

“Yes,” said Grandfather Rabbit, “Short 
Ears was in a bad fix, as you can see. He could 
not open the door to get his tail out, because 
Mr. Dog would come in and catch him. 

“He did not have long to think about it, 
for the very next thing he knew Mr. Dog 
grabbed at his tail and off it came right up to 
the door. And off he ran. For, you see, he 


WHY RABBITS HAVE SHORT TAILS 163 

thought he had Short Ears on the end of the 
tail, and he did not stop to look. He just ran. 

“ When his tail broke off, over went Short 
Ears on the floor, for that set him free. ‘Oh 
dear! Oh dear! What shall I do?' he cried, 
when he jumped up and looked in the mirror 
and saw that his long tail was gone and all 
that remained was a little stubby tail, just 
like yours. 

“First he ran to the medicine-closet and got 
some salve and a soft piece of cloth. But he 
found he could not reach the end of his tail 
— it was too short. 

“His first thought was to run over to his 
cousin Rabbit’s house, not far off, but when 
he started toward the door he remembered 
Mr. Dog. 

“Short Ears leaned his head to the crack 
in the door and listened hard. His ears were 
short, you remember, but not so short but that 
he heard Mr. Dog barking. 

. “Nearer and nearer came the bark. Short 
Ears locked the door and ran to the windows 
and fastened them and drew the shades, and 
then he ran into the closet and closed the 
door. 

“Away back he crept under his Sunday 


i6 4 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

clothes, where he was sure no one would find 
him, and there he sat and listened and listened 
and listened. 

“Mr. Dog barked and jumped about outside 
the house, for he was very much upset when he 
found that he did not have Short Ears on the 
end of the tail he carried off. 

“But it was no use. He could not get into 
Short Ears’s house, and at last he gave it up 
and ran off home, barking all the way. 

“Short Ears listened, and though Mr. Dog’s 
tones grew fainter and fainter, Short Ears was 
surprised to find he could hear the barking, 
though it was a long way off. 

“After it was dark he came out of the closet 
and crept into his bed without even thinking 
of the end of his tail, he was so tired and worn 
out listening. 

“And now what do you think had happened 
to him, and what do you think he saw when 
he looked in the mirror in the morning to 
brush his hair?” 

Bunny Rabbit shook ms head. “I don’t 
know, grandfather,” he said. “What had 
happened to Short Ears?” 

“His ears had grown long, he had listened 
so hard to the barking of Mr. Dog,” said 


WHY RABBITS HAVE SHORT TAILS 165 

Grandfather Rabbit. “And from that day 
all the Rabbit family have had short tails and 
long ears, which is just as it should be, for 
we can hear Mr. Dog a long way off, and we 
do not have the bother of looking after a long 
tail when we run to cover. So don’t wish to 
have yours changed again, for you see now 
that you are better off than poor Short Ears 
was, don’t you?” 

Bunny Rabbit said he did, and that he 
should never wish for a long tail and short 
ears again. And he didn’t. 

12 



THE HUNTER’S FRIEND, JOHNNIE 
BEAR 


I N a hut on the side of a mountain lived an 
old hunter all alone. He had only one room, 
which was very scantily furnished, and he 
cooked his meals in a fireplace. In the fire- 
place was a big hook where he hung his kettle, 
and he cooked his meat by holding it between 
two sticks over the coals. 

You need not pity this old man, for he 
would rather eat his food cooked in this way 
than in any other. He had a bunk built in 
the room about half-way up the wall, where he 
had to climb a ladder to reach it, and when he 
went to bed he covered himself with a big 
bearskin. Beside the bunk a gun hung on the 
wall where he could quickly reach it if it 


THE HUNTER’S FRIEND, JOHNNIE BEAR 167 

were needed. Across the door at night he 
fastened a big bar, for he did not intend that 
any one should enter while he was asleep. 

The old hunter had set a trap by his door, 
and one morning he found a baby bear caught 
in it by the left hind paw. He very carefully 
opened the trap and took the little fellow 
out. Then he took Johnnie Bear, as he named 
him, into his cabin and very carefully washed 
the poor cut foot and bound it up with some 
healing salve. 

Johnnie Bear seemed to know that the 
hunter was helping him, and he did not bite 
or try to get away. He made a funny little 
noise like a baby when it is hurt. Then the 
hunter warmed some milk and put it in a 
bottle, which he gave to the bear. Johnnie 
Bear took the bottle in both his paws and held 
it to his mouth and drank the milk very greed- 
ily. Then the hunter fixed a bed for him and 
put a log on the fire to keep the place warm 
while he went for a hunting trip. 

Johnnie Bear slept all day, and when the 
hunter returned at night he tried to run to 
meet him, but his poor foot hurt him so he 
had to lie down again. Several weeks passed 
before Johnnie Bear's foot became quite well, 


168 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


and he always limped, because the trap had 
cut so deep. 

The little fellow became very fond of the 
hunter and would run to meet him at night, 
and when the hunter brought in his game 
Johnnie Bear would poke it over with his nose 
and paw, as though to tell the hunter that 
he had done well. 

One day he did not run to meet the hunter, 
and when night came he did not come to his 
supper. The old hunter began looking around 
the cabin and he found the footprints of two 
bears. One was Johnnie Bear’s, which he 
could tell by the light mark which the lame 
foot made, and the other was of a big bear, 
which had enticed Johnnie back into the 
woods. The hunter felt very lonely and looked 
for Johnnie every day for a long time, but 
after a year had gone by he gave up all hope 
of ever seeing Johnnie again. 

A long time after this the hunter was going 
through a part of the wood that was filled 
with bushes and vines and in some way his 
foot became entangled and he fell, breaking 
his arm. His gun fell some distance from him, 
and as he went to pick it up he saw a big 
mother bear with two cubs coming toward him, 


THE HUNTER’S FRIEND, JOHNNIE BEAR 169 

She was growling and showing her teeth and the 
hunter felt that he had little chance for escape 
from a fight, and with his right arm broken 
he wondered how the fight might come out. 

He braced himself against a tree and waited 
for the bear to come up. He held his gun in 
his left hand, intending to use it to beat her 
off as long as possible. Just then another bear 
came in sight and the poor hunter gave up all 
hope. But all at once the first bear stopped 
and looked at the other bear, then suddenly- 
walked toward him. Both stood and looked 
at the hunter, who did not move. Suddenly 
the second bear growled strangely and the 
first bear walked away with the two cubs. 
Then the second bear came nearer, and as he 
walked the hunter saw that he limped. It 
was Johnnie Bear, and in some unknown 
tongue he had sent the other bear away and 
saved the hunter’s life. He did not come any 
nearer the hunter, but only looked at him, as 
though to say, “You saved my life once, now 
I have paid my debt to you.” Then he limped 
away in the direction the other bears had gone. 
Perhaps the mother bear was Johnnie’s wife 
and the cubs were their children. 

Who can tell? 



PLAID TROUSERS 

7WIR. TIM COON had a pair of red-and- 
green plaid trousers and that was what 
made everybody in the woods envious. 

But there was one who not only was envious 
— he was very jealous of his rights — and that 
one was Mr. Fox. 

For Mr. Fox thought, and so did every one 
else in the woods, that he was the very smart- 
est and nattiest fellow around until Tim Coon 
came along with those red-and-green plaid 
trousers. 

Mr. Fox at first did not bother much about 
the trousers, for he felt sure that in a short 
time he could persuade Tim Coon to part 
with them, but here he was mistaken, as time 
proved. 


PLAID TROUSERS 


171 

Mr. Fox had called on Tim every day. He 
had carried the fattest hen or duck, and even 
two fat chickens, and each time he hinted 
that he might part with each or any of them 
if he were offered the right thing. 

But Tim Coon was well supplied with the 
season’s good things to eat and would not 
offer anything worth having. 

And that was the reason that Mr. Fox sat 
on his steps one morning in deep thought 
while he smoked his old corncob pipe. 

While he was thinking his eyes happened 
to alight upon a piece of paper on which there 
was some printing, and then he saw the word 
WOOL in big letters. 

“Wool?” thought Mr. Fox; “that is what 
those red-and-green trousers are; all wool, 
Tim Coon says.” 

Mr. Fox got up from the steps and picked 
up the paper. He began to read, and as he 
read his eyes grew big. The more he read 
the bigger they grew, and at last he became 
so interested he dropped his pipe from his 
mouth without noticing it. 

Mr. Fox read all the printing. Then he 
crumpled up the paper and threw it into the 
bushes. 


1 72 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

“If he only would get them soiled,” he said, 
“the rest would be easy; he would be sure to 
ask my advice. 

“I know what I will do,” he said, starting 
for his barn. “I’ll paint the seat of my rock- 
ing-chair; he loves to sit in that.” 

Pretty soon Mr. Fox had his rocking-chair 
painted a nice shiny black, and then he sat 
down to watch for Tim Coon, who always 
passed by about that time. He did not have 
to wait long before Tim came along, wearing 
the plaid trousers. “Come in, Tim, and have 
a smoke,” said Mr. Fox, in his most polite 
manner. 

Mr. Fox went to the closet to get a pipe 
for Tim, and, just as he expected, down sat 
Tim Coon in the rocking-chair right on the 
wet paint. 

“Oh dear, oh dear, how sorry I am!” said 
Mr. Fox, hurrying to Tim. 

“Get up quick, Tim! I just painted that 
chair. I hope you have not got it on your 
plaid trousers.” 

Mr. Fox’s eyes twinkled as he got behind 
poor Tim to look at the seat of his trousers, 
but that, of course, Tim Coon did not see, and 
when Mr. Fox told him there was a big black 


PLAID TROUSERS 


i73 


spot, but that he felt sure he could tell him 
just how to get it out, Tim thought he was a 
very kind fellow. 

''Don’t you bother at all, Tim. I read the 
other day just how to wash woolen garments. 
It said it was sure and safe, so I will help you, 
for I really feel to blame ; I ought to have re- 
membered that rocker was freshly painted. 

“First, I must get you some white soap, and 
as I have none in the house I shall have to 
run over to Mr. Man’s and get some; he has 
everything in his house.” 

Tim Coon thought Mr. Fox was the very 
kindest fellow he knew, and he ran right home 
to take off the trousers and wait for Mr. Fox 
to return. 

“Oh, you might put on a kettle of water,” 
called Mr. Fox as Tim was hurrying away, 
“and have it boiling; it must boil hard.” 

Mr. Fox had a harder time than he expected 
getting the soap from Mr. Man’s, for Mr. Dog 
had gone to sleep right in the doorway of the 
barn, and that was where Mr. Fox wanted to go. 

He had seen a piece of white soap on a box 
in the barn one day, where Mr. Man had been 
washing his best harness, and he hoped very 
much he would find it there now. 


i74 SANDMAN’S RAINY' DAY STORIES 


After a while Mr. Dog awoke and went 
away and Mr. Fox crept in. He was lucky 
enough to find the soap, and off he ran for 
Tim Coon’s house just as the sun was going 
down. 

“ I risked a good deal, Tim, to get this soap,” 
he said. “I do not like to go over the hill in 
the daytime — too risky. 

“Now we must put the trousers in a pail,” 
.explained Mr. Fox, “and then very slowly 
pour the water on them. Are you sure the 
water is boiling hard?” 

Tim said he was, and so Mr. Fox told him 
to bring it along, and as Tim poured it in the 
pail Mr. Fox shaved up the soap and dropped 
it in. 

“Now get me a stick,” he said, “so I can 
stir it and make a good suds, and now I will 
leave you, for I am sure you can do the rest, 
and I must get home, as it is getting dark. 

“All you have to do is to let them soak 
overnight and take them out in the morning 
and hang them in the sun, and if that recipe 
for washing woolen is good for anything your 
trousers will be as good as new.” 

Off ran Mr. Fox for home, chuckling to him- 
self all the way. “Yes, they will be as good as 


PLAID TROUSERS 


i75 


new,” he said, “but not for you to wear, my 
friend Tim. They may fit a very young coon, 
but not a full -grown-up coon like you. Oh no.” 

Poor Tim Coon viewed his trousers as they 
hung on the line the next day with a sinking 
heart, for the black stain of the paint was of 
course still to be seen, but later when they 
were dry and he tried to put them on it was 
not a feeling of sadness which came over him. 
It was anger. 

Tim looked at himself in the looking-glass 
and saw that his handsome plaid trousers 
were no longer fit for him to wear. They were 
well up to his knees, and so snugly did they 
fit him he could not bend, let alone walk. 

It took some time to get out of them, but 
when he did he took them over to Mr. Fox’s 
house and showed him the remains of what 
had once been his plaid trousers. 

“It did not work right. That is all I can 
say,” said Mr. Fox, trying hard to look sad. 
“You never can tell about those recipes you 
read in papers and magazines until you have 
tried them.” 

“I wish some one else had tried it first,” 
said Tim, with a sigh, as he looked at his 
trousers. 


176 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

“I might have worn a long-tailed coat and 
covered up the paint spot, but there is nothing 
I can do with these short legs.” 

“You could wear a skirt or put some lace 
on the bottom of the legs,” suggested Mr. Fox. 

“Are you sure the water had to boil?” asked 
Tim. 

“Sure as I am that the sun will shine!” 
replied Mr. Fox. “Are you sure, Tim, those 
trousers are all wool?” 

“I thought they were,” said Tim. 

“I know they are,” said Mr. Fox, looking 
after Tim down the path. 

Of course the plaid trousers were of no use 
to any one, but Mr. Fox was satisfied so long 
as he did not have to see Tim Coon wearing 
them. 



THE THREE RUNAWAYS 
R. DOG sat in front of his house, looking 



^ " * very sad; Mr. Tom Cat came along with 
his head hanging down, very sad, too. 

“ Hello, Tommie!'’ said Mr. Dog. “ You 
look as sad as I feel. What is the matter?” 

“ Matter enough, Mr. Dog,” said Mr. Tom 
Cat. “I have just been driven out of the 
house with a broom by cook, who says I am 
of no use; that I am too fat and too well fed 
to catch the mice. 

“Mr. Dog, I have caught all the mice in 
that house for years, and just because I slept 
one night — that was last night — that cook 
forgets all about all the good work I have 
done in the past and puts me out, and with a 
broom, too. Oh, it is too terrible, and I have 
not had my breakfast, either,” 


178 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

“ Tommie, dear fellow/’ said Mr. Dog, “you 
certainly have a hard time of it, but let me 
tell you what has happened to me after all 
my years of service to the master. Last night 
a fox got into the hen-house, and just because 
I did not keep awake all night and catch him 
the master took me up to the hen-house and 
put my nose right down on the floor where that 
fox had walked, and then he boxed my ears. 
Think of it, Thomas, he boxed my ears before 
all the hens and chickens and said I was get- 
ting old and good for nothing, and I have not 
had a bite to eat this morning. I wonder what 
this place is coming to when such good fellows 
as we are get such treatment. That is what I 
would like to know, Thomas Cat.” 

Mr. Tom Cat licked his mouth and stretched 
himself before he answered: “ I think, Mr. Dog, 
we better give the master and cook a chance 
to think over what they have done to us and 
perhaps they may remember all the good 
things we have done all these years and think 
that one little mistake was not so bad, after 
all. I am for running away, I am. What do 
you say?” 

“Now I never thought of that, Thomas,” 
said Mr. Dog, standing up and looking very 


THE THREE RUNAWAYS 


179 


serious. “ I believe that is a good plan, Thomas. 
I do, indeed; but where shall we run?” 

“Oh, we can walk; you know we don’t have 
to run at all, only they call it running away 
if you go off where people can’t find you,” 
said Mr. Tom Cat. “I know a place we can 
go. Come with me.” 

“I’ll go with you,” said Mr. Dog. “Lead 
the way, Thomas.” 

Just as they were passing the barn-yard 
they saw Mr. Rooster scrooged under the 
fence. 

“Hello, Mr. Rooster!” said Mr. Dog. “What 
has happened to you that you look so unhappy 
this morning?” 

“Why wouldn’t I look unhappy?” replied 
Mr. Rooster. “Here I have been on this farm 
and looking after all those silly hens these long 
years, and this morning the master he wished 
the fox had got me last night instead of the 
hen he carried off. I tell you it is hard luck, 
after all I have done for the master.” 

“Come with us,” said Mr. Tom Cat. “We 
are running away; the cook chased me out 
this morning because I happened to sleep 
all night and didn’t catch the mice, and Mr. 
Dog was blamed because the fox got into your 


i8o SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


house last night. We are not appreciated 
around here, that is plain. Will you come 
along?” 

“I had never thought of running away,” 
said Mr. Rooster, getting out from under the 
fence and flapping the dust from his wings, 
“but I think I like the idea of running away. 
I will go along with you. Perhaps the master 
and those foolish hens of mine will begin to 
think what a fine fellow I am and wish I had 
not gone. Where are you going?” 

“Oh, to a place I know where no one will 
find us,” said Mr. Tom Cat, running ahead. 

Mr. Dog and Mr. Rooster followed Mr. 
Tom Cat, and soon they were in the woods 
where the bushes grew thick and the trees 
shut out the sun. 

“Here we are,” said Mr. Tom Cat; “now 
no one will find us and we can rest in ease.” 

“I have not had my breakfast,” said Mr. 
Rooster, scratching the ground. 

“Neither have we,” said Mr. Tom Cat, “but 
I have heard somewhere that you should not 
think of your troubles and they will not bother 
you, so suppose we each tell a story to take up 
the time and also take our minds off the 
thought that we have not had our breakfast. 


THE THREE RUNAWAYS 181 

You begin, Mr. Dog, because you are such a 
good story-teller and have had so many 
adventures. ” 

Mr. Dog looked very wise and scratched his 
head as if he was thinking very hard. 

“Did I ever tell you about how I treed a 
coon?” he asked. 

Mr. Rooster and Mr. Tom Cat said they 
never had heard it, but they should like to 
hear about it very much indeed. 

mr. dog’s story 

Mr. Dog cleared his throat and then he 
said: “I have always had the reputation of 
being a good hunter, especially when coons 
were in season, but this story which I am about 
to tell will show that I had the hardest time 
a dog ever had getting a coon. 

“One moonlight night the master came out 
of the house and whistled to me; he had his 
gun over his shoulder and I knew pretty well 
what was going to happen; we were going 
coon-hunting. 

“ So I wagged my tail and gave two or three 
sharp barks because I knew I could not bark 
again until I had something to bark about. 

13 


182 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


“Oh, it was a beautiful night, and just as 
we got out in the road a little way from the 
bam I saw something moving. I wasn’t sure 
at first whether it was a fox or a coon, both 
of them being equally fond of visiting the 
poultry -yard ; but I kept very still and pretty 
soon I saw him right in the full moonlight. 
It was as fat a coon as I ever saw, and he 
didn’t see me and I made a run for him. 

“Well, you may have seen a coon run, my 
friends, but believe me when I tell you that 
you never saw one run as this one did. He 
gave a bound and away he went, and I went 
after him, and Mr. Man followed, for I was 
barking now, for there was reason for it. 

“Well, that coon got to the tree first, and 
up he went, for I saw him, and I can tell you 
I was some tickled, for I knew that the master 
would be pleased enough when he saw the 
size of that coon. 

“After he got into the tree I stood under it 
and looked up and barked with all my might, 
and Mr. Man was coming a-running as fast 
as he could in the distance. 

“But while I saw that coon go up the tree 
as plainly as I ever saw anything, I couldn’t 
see hide nor hair of him when I looked up. 


THE THREE RUNAWAYS 183 

“ Mr. Man came up to me after a while and 
said, ‘Where is he, Rover?’ 

“I kept looking up in the tree and barking 
to keep up my courage, though I could see 
nothing but tree. 

“‘You are fooled, old fellow, ’’said the mas- 
ter ; ‘ he got away from you. Go after him, old 
boy.’ 

“But I knew I wasn’t fooled, though for 
the life of me I could not see that coon. 

‘ ‘ I kept on barking and jumping about and 
the master took another look, but he did not 
see that coon and pretty soon he got tired. 

“‘You are a fake, Rover,’ he said to me. 
‘ I am going home. We will try it another night 
and see if you can see straight.’ And off he 
went. 

“But I didn’t leave that tree. I knew that 
coon couldn’t have jumped out of the tree 
and I also knew he went up the tree, so I was 
sure he was in the tree right then. 

“I barked louder than ever, and though the 
master whistled and called, I still barked and 
jumped about. 

“Suddenly I thought if I kept very still a 
minute that coon might show his head, so I 
stepped close to the tree and stood in the 


i8 4 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

shadow and kept quiet. It wasn’t more than 
a minute before, just as I thought, out poked 
the head of that coon to see if I had gone. 

“Well, I just barked some then and I danced, 
and pretty soon master came running back 
and I jumped and barked right under the 
place where I had seen the head of Mr. Coon. 

“ ‘ Ah, you are right, boy,’ I heard the master 
say, softly, and then bang went his gun and 
Mr. Coon dropped to the ground. 

“‘Good old boy, you can’t be fooled, can 
you, Rover?’ said master, patting me on the 
head; ‘you can’t be beat for coon-hunting. 
Come along home and show what we got.’ 

“The next night they had a great time at 
the master’s house. He told them all how I 
treed that coon and how I stuck to it in spite 
of his going away and calling to me to go 
along. 

“I was patted on the head and made a 
great deal of, and every time I see the master 
with that coon cap he wears I feel very happy.” 

Mr. Dog stopped and looked sad again, and 
Mr. Tom Cat said: “Oh, cheer up, Mr. Dog, 
the master will soon be wearing that cap 
again, and he will remember how you caught 
the coon, That is a good story to tell. Now 


THE THREE RUNAWAYS 185 

we will listen to what Mr. Rooster has to tell 
us.” 

Mr. Rooster said he would tell them about 
the new rooster that came to the barn-yard 
one day. 

MR. ROOSTER’S STORY 

Mr. Rooster straightened himself and said 
he was proud to say he was raised on the 
master’s farm. He was proud, too, to say he 
had succeeded the old rooster that had gone 
to a dinner one day and did not return. 

“I have always taken good care of my fam- 
ily, and, if I do say it, there is not a better- 
looking family than mine around these parts,” 
said Mr. Rooster. 

“There have been many young roosters in 
the barn-yard, but they have gone away to 
other farms to live, for the master has an 
eye for beauty, and he has always decided 
that I was too — er — valuable to lose.” 

Mr. Dog and Mr. Tom Cat smiled a little 
on the side at this last remark, for they well 
knew how vain Mr. Rooster was, and then 
he really did have fine feathers and a beauti- 
ful comb. 

“I have never had any trouble with my 


i86 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


family until one morning Madam Blackie 
came running to me,” continued Mr. Rooster, 
“to tell me a new rooster had come in the 
barn-yard to live.” 

“ ‘It is shameful the way all those silly hens 
are running around him,’ she said. ‘He isn’t 
noticing them a little bit and they strut back 
and forth, eying him as if they had never seen 
a handsome rooster before. 

“‘For my part, I think the old friends are 
the best, though of course you are not old, 
my dear Mr. Rooster, only old in acquaintance 
I mean.’ 

‘ ‘ I had always thought Madam Blackie an 
old busybody, but now, if this was all true, I 
had found her my only friend. 

“‘You are most kind, Madam Blackie,’ I 
said, ‘and I thank you, but I feel sure that 
the master will not have a new rooster here. 
This new-comer will probably leave in a few 
days.’ 

“I expected he would, too, for I had as 
fine a set of spurs as I had ever seen, and I 
intended to show them to this new rooster. 

“As soon as I could get away from Madam 
Blackie I took a stroll around by the barn- 
yard, and sure enough there were all my 


THE THREE RUNAWAYS 187 

family, even the' chickens, walking around 
and clucking and cackling as hens will at a 
handsome red-and-black rooster that stood 
by the bam door. 

“I felt pretty queer for a minute, for that 
new rooster had a very shiny-looking set of 
feathers, and I knew he would be very popular 
for a while at least, and with the whole family 
against me, even my spurs might not make 
me king. 

“I held my head very high, and with my 
light step I walked past them some distance 
from the bam, but still I knew they all saw 
me. 

“There was a little flutter at first, and they 
ran toward me, but they gave a look at the 
new rooster. I could see them out of the cor- 
ner of my eyes, and back the whole silly lot 
went and began their silly cackling and 
clucking. 

“I went behind a wall and watched them 
through a hole. First they would scratch the 
ground near the new rooster and talk away to 
one another, and then they would walk by 
him, but not once did he turn his head. 

“‘He isn't going to let them think he sees 
them," I thought; but the longer I watched 


188 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 


the stranger it seemed to me that with all 
those fine-looking hens and chickens cackling 
about him he should not look once their way ; 
and then a thought came to me which made 
me jump up, so I crawled under the gate and 
walked into the barn-yard. 

“I walked right up to that family of mine 
and looked at them, and then I looked at the 
new rooster. I was right close to him then. 

“Every hen opened her eyes and mouth, 
for they thought right then and there was to 
be a settlement of rights, but one glance at 
the new rooster told me what I had thought 
was true, and I just turned my back on him 
and said: ‘When you silly hens and chickens 
get tired of admiring the new weather-cock 
you better come over in the lot back of the 
barn. There is some corn and grain on the 
ground. I am surprised that my family can- 
not tell a tin weather-cock from a real rooster/ 
and away I walked with my head held higher 
than ever. 

“After that I never had the least trouble 
with them, but of course I found out that 
Madam Blackie had been the first one to see 
the tin rooster and had gone right up to him 
and found it out, and then waited to see if the 


THE THREE RUNAWAYS 189 

others would be fooled. When she found they 
were she ran away to tell me. 

“Oh, it takes all kinds of hens to make a 
barn-yard family!” sighed the rooster. 

“I guess they will miss you,” said Mr. Dog, 
“and the master will, too, for all the hens 
are likely to run away, with no one to keep 
them at home.” 

“Tommie Cat, we will hear what you have 
to tell. I bet it will be about a mouse.” 

“You win the bet,” said Mr. Tom Cat. 

MR. TOM CAT’s STORY 

“My story,” said Mr. Tom Cat, “is about 
a mouse, the only mouse that ever got away 
from me — that is, the only one that I ever 
saw. Of course, I did not see the ones that 
cook thought I should have caught. 

“I came to live at the master’s house when 
I was a very little kitten, and right away I 
began to catch the mice. 

“I have heard it said that my mother and 
father were the best mousers anywhere around, 
and I expect I take after them. Anyway, I 
could catch mice, so I became a great pet in 
the house. 


i 9 o SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

‘‘And while I always had plenty of milk — 
and sometimes cream — to eat, I never failed 
to catch a mouse each night, and sometimes 
more, for a cat had not lived in the house for 
years, and those mice thought they owned it 
until I came. 

“They ran about everywhere, on the pan- 
try shelves and all over the rooms at night, 
and they would even run over me sometimes 
when I was taking ’forty winks; but I soon 
stopped that. I played I was asleep when I 
wasn't and caught those silly mice until the 
others began to learn that I was a thing to be 
feared and not to be taken as a joke. 

“But there was one mouse I could not 
catch. He was larger than the others and had 
a little piece taken out of one ear, so I always 
knew him, and it gave me no end of worry to 
think he always escaped me. 

“The others called him Tip, because it was 
the tip of his ear that was gone; and Tip was 
some runner, I can tell you. He could get 
through the smallest hole in the wall and 
he could get away from you when you had 
your paw right over him. I made up my mind 
to get Tip if I had to let the other mice have 
the house, and so for a week I laid for Tip. 


THE THREE RUNAWAYS 


191 


“One night he came out of his hole and 
jumped right over my head and I chased him 
around the kitchen, when all at once right 
before my eyes he disappeared. 

‘ 1 1 sniffed and hunted. I knew he was there, 
but I could not see him or find him. All at 
once I saw a shoe of the master’s, that stood 
near the stove, move, and as quick as a wink 
I flew at it and put in my paw. 

“Did I get Tip? No, sir; that slick little 
fellow crawled out of a hole in the side of 
that shoe and ran for his hole in the wall, 
laughing and giggling to think he had fooled 
me again. 

“I did not sleep for two days after that, 
sitting by that hole in the wall, and I was 
thinking how hungry Tip must be, having 
to stay in there without any food and feeling 
sure he would have to come out soon or 
starve, when I felt something touch my tail. 

“ I turned around and there was Tip. How 
he got out I never knew, but I expect he 
gnawed a hole in another part of the wall. 
Anyway, there he was sitting on his hind legs 
and making funny motions with his front 
paws. 

“I jumped, but he was ready for that, and 


192 SANDMAN ’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

away he scampered into the pantry and I after 
him. 

“Over the shelves he went, and I went, too. 
Back of the boxes, and I went, too, tins and 
dishes falling with clatter and smash, but I 
did not care. I was after that Tip mouse and 
I knew it was now or never. 

“He knew it was a fight to the death, I 
think, by the mad dash he made behind dishes 
and tins, but after a while he grew tired and 
made for his hole in the wall. I knew that 
was my chance to get him in the open, and I 
flew after him and reached him With the tip 
of my paw, but it was only his tail I had. Tip 
was in the hole. I grabbed at the tail with 
my teeth and off it came. I have that tail 
yet, for I never got Tip, and I like to look at 
it sometimes just to get up my fighting 
spirit.” 

“Didn’t you ever see Tip again?” asked 
Mr. Rooster and Mr. Dog. 

“Oh yes, I saw him once after that,” said 
Mr. Tom Cat, with a yawn. 

“Why didn’t you catch him?” they asked, 
together. 

“Oh, Tip was in a trap when I saw him,” 
said Mr. Tom Cat. 


THE THREE RUNAWAYS 


193 


“ Was it one of those traps that catch them 
by the head?” asked Mr. Dog. 

“No, it was a little wire affair,” said Mr. 
Tom Cat, “and I looked in and saw him 
running about.” 

“Why didn’t you catch him then when the 
master opened the trap? Didn’t they give 
you a chance at him?” 

“No, Mr. Dog,” said Mr. Tom Cat, looking 
very lofty. “I am a sportsman and no true 
sportsman ever touches a caged mouse. Tip 
was let out of the trap, and the master thought 
I would catch him, but I didn’t even run after 
him, and for all I know Tip may be living 
yet. I will do my own hunting and catching; 
none of those traps can ever help me to get 
a mouse.” 

“Some of his grandchildren might go back 
there to live, even if Tip did not return to 
the hole in the wall,” said Mr. Dog. 

“It might be that those very mice that 
were running about last night were some of 
his relations.” 

“I never thought of that,” said Mr. Tom 
Cat. “I will watch for them to-night, and 
whether they are or not I will remember Tip 
and catch them all,” 


i94 SANDMAN’S RAINY DAY STORIES 

“I guess I will go along with you,” said 
Mr. Dog. “I am pretty hungry, and it must 
be dinner-time.” 

“ If you all are going home, I guess I better 
get back in time for dinner, too,” said Mr. 
Rooster; “my family will think I am lost.” 

So all three started off for their home, for- 
getting all about their grievances in listening 
to the story each had told, and if nothing has 
happened to them I expect they are living 
there yet. 




























































































































































































































































































































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